B. V. Karanth

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Lore & Background

Karanth was born into a Kannada speaking family of Manchi, a village near Babukodi in Bantwal taluk of Dakshina Kannada district in 1929. His passion for theatre started at an early age; his first tryst with theatre was when he was in standard III – he acted in Nanna Gopala, a play directed by P.K. Narayana. He then ran away from home and joined the legendary Gubbi Veeranna drama company where he worked alongside Rajkumar who also was starting out then as a novice. Gubbi Veeranna sent Karanth to Banaras to gain a Master of Arts degree, where he also underwent training in Hindustani music under Guru Omkarnath Thakur. Thereafter, along with his wife, Prema Karanth, Karanth set up 'Benaka', one of Bangalore's oldest theatre groups. It is an acronym for Bengalooru Nagara Kalavidaru. Then, Prema took up a teaching job in Delhi and supported Karanth through the National School of Drama. He was to return the compliment after he graduated from the NSD, and eventually became its director. He graduated from the National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi, in 1962, then headed by Ebrahim Alkazi. Between 1969 and 1972, he worked as a drama instructor at the Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, New Delhi after which the couple returned to Bangalore. He then returned to the NSD, this time as its director in 1977. As the director of NSD, Karanth took theatre to far-flung corners of India. He conducted several workshops in places far away as Madurai in Tamil Nadu. After his stint as the director of NSD, the Madhya Pradesh government invited him to head the Rangamandal repertory under the aegis of the Bharat Bhavan. After rendering yeoman service to the theatre scene in Madhya Pradesh between 1981 and '86, Karanth returned to Karnataka. In 1989, the Karnataka government invited him to set up a repertory in Mysore, which he named Rangayana and headed until 1995. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the late 1990s and died at 8 p.m. (IST) on 1 September 2002 in a private hospital in Bangalore.

Reader's Guide

B. V. Karanth's significance lies in his transformative impact on Indian theatre and cinema. As a pioneer of Parallel Cinema, he brought a sea change to Kannada theatre which then was steeped in the old, formal proscenium style. His plays like Jokumara Swamy, Sankranti, Huchu Kudure and Oedipus, directed in the early 1970s, were hailed as trendsetters, touching on language, music, song, and stylisation. His innovative use of music, drawing on classical, traditional, and folk forms, was a major contribution. As director of the National School of Drama (1977–1981), he took theatre to far-flung corners of India, conducting workshops as far as Madurai. He later founded Rangamandal at Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal (1981–1988) and Rangayana in Mysore (1989–1995). His translations of Sanskrit plays into Hindi and Kannada plays into Hindi and vice versa, including Girish Karnad's Tughlaq, attained cult status. He directed over a hundred plays in multiple languages and scored music for 26 films, winning six National Film Awards.

Did You Know?

• Karanth's first stage performance was in standard III, acting in Nanna Gopala directed by P.K. Narayana.
• He ran away from home to join the Gubbi Veeranna drama company, working alongside a novice Rajkumar.
• Gubbi Veeranna sent Karanth to Banaras for a Master of Arts degree, where he also trained in Hindustani music under Guru Omkarnath Thakur.
• Karanth translated Girish Karnad's play Tughlaq into Hindi/Urdu, which attained cult status.
• He directed over a hundred plays in languages including Kannada, Hindi, English, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Punjabi, Urdu, Sanskrit, and Gujarati.

Roots and Early Awakening

Born in 1929 in the small village of Manchi near Babukodi, in Bantwal taluk of Dakshina Kannada district, Karanth grew up in a Kannada-speaking household where the seeds of theatrical passion were sown remarkably early. By the time he was in standard III, he had already stepped onto a stage, performing in Nanna Gopala, a production directed by P.K. Narayana. That initial spark proved irresistible. He left home to join the celebrated Gubbi Veeranna drama troupe, where he worked shoulder to shoulder with a young Rajkumar, both of them still novices finding their footing in the world of live performance. Gubbi Veeranna, recognizing the boy's potential, sent him to Banaras to pursue a Master of Arts degree. There, Karanth also immersed himself in Hindustani classical music under the guidance of Guru Omkarnath Thakur, an experience that would shape his artistic sensibility for decades. Back in Bangalore, he and his wife Prema co-founded Benaka, one of Bangalore's oldest theatre groups, establishing a creative partnership that would define their shared life.

Building Institutions Across India

Karanth's influence on Indian theatre was not confined to the stage; it was cemented through the institutions he built and led. After graduating from the National School of Drama in 1962 under Ebrahim Alkazi's leadership, he went on to serve as its director from 1977 to 1981, during which he carried theatrical training to remote parts of the country, conducting workshops as far as Madurai in Tamil Nadu. In 1974, he founded Benaka in Bangalore, a repertory company that became a cornerstone of the city's cultural life. His most transformative institutional work came in Madhya Pradesh, where he was invited by Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal to establish Rangamandal, the state's first-ever repertory, between 1981 and 1988. There, he pioneered the use of folk performers to train contemporary actors and produced plays in regional dialects like Bundelkhandi, Malavi, and Chhattisgarhi, drawing enormous audiences. In 1989, the Karnataka government called upon him to create Rangayana in Mysore, which he led until 1995, further extending his architectural vision for Indian theatre.

Musical Genius and Artistic Revolution

When Karanth entered the Kannada theatre landscape in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the scene was largely locked into a rigid, formal proscenium tradition. His arrival triggered what can only be called a seismic shift. Productions like Jokumara Swamy, Sankranti, Huchu Kudure, and his staging of Oedipus were celebrated as trendsetting works that reimagined every element of the theatrical craft—language, song, stylization, and above all, music. His most distinctive contribution was the way he wove together classical, traditional, and folk musical forms into seamless compositions that became inseparable from the dramatic prose itself. His plays were remembered less for their visual design than for their aural richness. This philosophy extended to his Hindi work, where he staged Shakespeare's Macbeth using the traditional Yakshagana dance-drama form. Jnanpith awardee Nirmal Verma had once described Karanth as 'the authentic desi genius of Indian theatre'. In 2010, at the 12th Bharat Rang Mahotsav, the annual theatre festival of National School of Drama, Delhi, a tribute exhibition dedicated to life, works and theatre of B.V. Karanth and Habib Tanvir was displayed.

A Polyglot Artist and Final Chapter

Karanth's creative output defied easy categorization by language or medium. He directed more than a hundred plays, with Kannada and Hindi making up the bulk, yet he also worked in English, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Punjabi, Urdu, Sanskrit, and Gujarati. His translation work was equally remarkable: he rendered Sanskrit classics like Swapna Vasavadatta, Uttararama Charita, and Mrichchakatika into Hindi, and his Hindi-Urdu translation of Girish Karnad's Tughlaq achieved a kind of cult following. Beyond theatre, he ventured into Kannada and Hindi cinema, composing music for 26 films, and collaborated closely with luminaries such as Girish Karnad and U.R. Ananthamurthy. He also devoted significant energy to children's theatre, directing productions like Panjara Shale, Neeli Kudure, and Alilu Ramayana. His final years were marked by a diagnosis of prostate cancer in the late 1990s. He passed away at eight in the evening on 1 September 2002 in a private hospital in Bangalore.