Mahesh Dattani
Playwright,
Actor, Director
 Mahesh
Dattani is an internationally acclaimed theatre person of
India. He is the artistic director and founder of the performing
arts group PLAYPEN which performs world premieres of
his own works and of other playwrights. Two of his plays in
collaboration with Alyque Padamsee have been hailed by
critics as "the
greatest playwright-director collaboration on the Indian stage."
His plays are published under an anthology titled 'Final
Solutions and other plays. His Bravely
Fought the Queen was produced in India
and London with the critics comparing his works to those of
Ayckbourne and Pinter. Another one of his successful
plays published is Tara.
Dattani also teaches a special theatre course during summer
at Portland State University, USA. His beautifully designed
theatre studio is devoted to promoting
new theatrical ventures in Bangalore. He has won the Sahitya
Academy Award for best Playwright, in English.
Girish Karnad
Playwright and
film-maker
 Girish
Karnad was educated at the Karnataka University, Dharwad and
Oxford (a Rhodes scholar) and worked with Oxford University
Press. He later resigned to concentrate on writing and film-making.
Some of his famous plays are Hayavadana (winner
of Sangeeth Natak Academy Award
and Kamaladevi
Chattopadhyay award).
Nagamandala
a play was premiered in the US and was staged the world over.
Some of his other plays were The
Fire and the Rain and
Tughlaq.
He also scripted and played the lead role in his first film
Samskara,
which first banned by censors, went on to win a President's
Gold Medal. His other films have won
national awards and have been selected by the international
film festivals. He has acted in Shyam Benegal's and Satyajit
Ray's films and Mrinal Sen's television series. He
was director of The Film and Television Institute
of India and Chairman of the Sangeeth Natak Academy.
The Karnataka University has conferred a D.
Litt on him. Some of the prestigious awards
conferred on him are the Padma
Shri (1974) and
Padma Bhushan (1992). He has
also recently won the Jnana Peeth Award.
C.R. Simha
Actor, Director
 Mr.Simha
is a recognised theatre artist, his most famous role being
that of the legendary Tughlaq in Girish Karnad's
play by the same name. Under the banner of the theatre group,
Nataranga he has acted and also directed many of classics
like Kakana Kote and ThaleDanda.
He has also taken a keen interest in the adaptations of Shakespeare's
Othello, Beckett's Waiting For Godot and
Brecht's Chalk Circle. His plays Typical
T.P. Kailasam and Rasa Rishi-Kuvempu,
portrayal of writers Kailasam and Kuvempu are
legendary. With wife Sharada, he took his one-man show
of Kailasam to 16 American and Canadian cities.
He is also affiliated to the Bangalore Little Theatre Group
and is actively involved in the activities of the English theatre.
He has acted in around 60 Kannada films and directed 5, of which
Kakana Kote has won a state award. Some of the
other awards bestowed on him include Karnataka
State Natak Academy award and the Shankare
Gowda Theatre award. In 1999 he was awarded the prestigious
annual Kailasam award instituted
by Gorur Pratishtana. This award has been given in recognition
of his contribution to theatre and films. Besides his interest
in plays, he is also an admirer of art and architecture. His
exquisitely designed house, by architect Mr. Jaisim,
won the all India award for design, housing the world's largest
statue of Charlie Chaplin, sculpted in granite by John Devaraj.
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