Biography
Born in Manchi, a village near Babukodi in Bantwal taluk of Dakshina Kannada district in 1928, Karanth's passion for theatre started at an early age. His first tryst with theater 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 do his Masters in Arts 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 theater 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 later 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. Here Karanth dabbled in some cinema as well as music and was involved with the likes of Girish Karnad and U.R. Ananthamurthy in these ventures.
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 yoeman service to the theatre scene in Madhya Pradesh between 1981 and '86, Karanth returned to Karnataka. He was having an affair with one actress-Vibha Mishra, where in a drunk state, he poured Kerosene over her, and burnt her. However, Vibha due to gratitude towards her Guru, later gave a statement that saved Karanth from the charges of an attempt to murder. He was criticized bitterly for the action by Women activists and was forced to return from Bhopal.
In 1989, the Karnataka government invited him to set up a repertory in Mysore, which he named Rangayana and headed until 1995.
Read more about this topic: B. V. Karanth
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