Prakash Belawadi (born 3 March 1961) is an Indian theatre artist, film director, television and media personality, who's also a teacher, activist and a journalist. He hails from Bengaluru.[1] He has participated in many seminars, conferences and festivals in India and abroad. He is a motivational speaker at events and TEDx conferences.[2][3][4][5]
He is also a mentor with the founding team of BISFF (Bengaluru International Short Film Festival) since 2010.[6]
Early life
Belawadi was born into a family of theatre artists in Bangaluru, in the erstwhile Mysuru State (now Karnataka).[7] His father, Belawadi Nanjundaiah Narayan (1929–2003) popularly known as Makeup Nani, was a personality in Kannada theatre, who also appeared in films, and worked as a make-up artist. His mother, Bhargavi Narayan, was a renowned film and theatre artiste. His siblings Sujata, Sudha and Pradeep, and nieces and nephews are also variously connected with theatre, music, television and cinema.[8] He completed his elementary education at Mahila Seva Samaja, higher school education in National High School, following which he completed his pre-university course at National College, Bangaluru.[9] He obtained a degree in mechanical engineering from University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering in 1983.[10]
Awards
Prakash Belawadi's debut film Stumble, which he wrote and directed, won the National Award for Best Film in the English language, 2003.[11]
He was conferred ‘Pratibha Bhushan’ in 2003 by the Government of Karnataka for his contribution to culture.[12]
He was recipient of Karnataka Nataka Academy Award (2011–12) for his contribution to English and Kannada-language theatre,[13] and
He was awarded the ‘Pride of Karnataka’ by Bangalore Round Table (2015),.[14]
He was the ‘Varshada Kannadiga’ (2015) in the field of entertainment, conferred by News 18 Kannada.[15]
He was given Helpmann Award, Australia (2019) for Best Actor, Male in the play 'Counting and Cracking', Belvoir St. Theatre, Sydney".[16][17]
International
Belawadi as mentioned earlier has participated in many seminars, conferences and festivals in India[18][19][20][21][22] and abroad, including the Beyond Bollywood conference at the Gothenburg International Film Festival, 2010 [23] the Performing Arts Market conference in Seoul, 2011 [24] the 50th Theatertreffen – annual theatre festival meet at Berlin, 2013 [25] and the seminar and exhibition, ‘Nature – A Good Idea’ at Trollhättan, Sweden in 2014.[26] He has been faculty for film courses in Sweden and Istanbul, Turkey.[27]
Partial filmography
S. L. Bhyrappa (left) and Prakash Belavadi (middle) discussing about the making of theatrical play on novel ParvaPrakash Belavadi, addressing an audience
His debut film feature has now been included in the national telecaster Doordarshan's Best of Indian Cinema series.[34]
The serial ‘Garva’, which he wrote and directed in 2001 is still considered a classic among Kannada serials.[35]
But Belawadi believes he belongs to the stage.[36]
Activism
Belawadi is one of the founding members of Citizens for Bengaluru, an active platform for people to engage with the city government to make it accountable to citizens.[37] Belawadi curates ‘Rotary Avani’, an annual ecology festival in Bengaluru between 22 April, International Mother Earth Day and 5 June, World Environment Day, to create awareness about the environment, in The Five Elements – Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Sky, so that people, together with government, industry, business and citizens can participate in initiatives to improve urban ecological health.[38][39]
