Prakash Belawadi

Prakash Belawadi
Prakash Belawadi in 2015.
Born	Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Alma mater	UVCE, Bangalore
Occupation	Actor & Film maker
Notable work	Stumble (2003)
Political party	Lok Satta Party
Spouse(s)	Chandrika Belawadi
Children	2
Parent(s)	Belavadi Nanjundaiah Narayana (father) Bhargavi Narayan (mother)
Relatives	Sudha Belawadi (sister) Samyukta Hornad (niece)

Prakash Belawadi (Kannada: ಪ್ರಕಾಶ್ ಬೆಳವಾಡಿ) is an Indian theater, film, television and media personality, teacher, activist and journalist from Bangalore.^[1] Belawadi has participated in many seminars, conferences and festivals in India and abroad. He has been 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 artistes in Bangalore, in the erstwhile Mysore State (now Karnataka).^[7] His father, Belavadi Nanjundaiah Narayan (1929–2003) popularly known as Make-up Nani, was a personality in Kannada theatre, who also appeared in films, and worked as a make-up artist alongside. His mother, Bhargavi, is 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, Bangalore.^[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[]

Films[]

As actor[]

Web series[]

As director[]

• His debut film feature has now been included in the national telecaster Doordarshan's Best of Indian Cinema series.^[29]
• The serial ‘Garva’, which he wrote and directed in 2001 is still considered a classic among Kannada serials.^[30]

But Belawadi believes he belongs to the stage.^[31]

Activism[]

Belawadi is one of the founding members of , an active platform for people to engage with the city government to make it accountable to citizens.^[32] 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.^[33][34]

References[]

External links[]

• Prakash Belawadi at IMDb