Jayanth Kaikini

Jayanth Gourish Kaikini is an Indian Lyricist, Story Teller and Poet working in Kannada Cinema and Kannada Literature. Jayanth was born on the 24th of January 1955 in Gokarna, Uttara Kannada, Karnataka State, India. Jayanth was born to Gourish Kaikini, a Kannada litterateur and Shanta, a school teacher, and a social worker. After a masters in Biochemistry which he attained from Karnataka University, Dharwad, Kaikini moved to Mumbai where he was working as a Chemist. He is now living in Bangalore with his wife and two children. Jayanth is regarded as one of the most prominent writers in Kannada today. He writes film scripts, poetry, and short stories.

So far Jayanth has published four books of poetry, three plays, six anthologies of short stories and a collection of essays. Dr. Kaikini started writing film songs with Chigurida Kanasu as his debut film now he is credited for revolutionizing Kannada film songs' image with a touch of beautiful Imagery and poetry. Movies like Milana, Mungaaru Male, Gaalipata have beautiful, touching and memorable songs with lyrics written by him. At 19 years of age in the year 1974 Jayanth received the Karnataka Sahitya Academy award for his first poetry collection, he went on to receive this award again in 1982, 1989 and 1996. Apart from this award, Dr. Kaikini has also been awarded the B. H. Sridhar award for fiction, the Dinakara Desai award for his poetry, as well as the Rujuwathu trust fellowship and Katha National award for his creativity.