B. V. Karanth

Babukodi Venketramana was popularly known asB.V Karanth. He was born on 19th September 1929 in Manchi a village in Babukodiof Dakshin Kannada.

He was a renowned director, actor, screenwriter, and musician both in Hindi as well as Kannada. When he was in class 3, he acted in a play“Nanna Gopala” directed by PK Narayana. He joined the Gopi Veerana drama company and worked there.

He ran away from home and joined this drama company. After that, Gubbi Veerana sent him to Varanasi to complete a master of Arts degree.

He also underwent training in Hindustani music at Varanasi by Guru Omkarnath Thakur. His wife was Prema Karanth Prema was a famous theatre personality, who was kn >> Read More... , who supported him to setup Bangalore's oldest theater group Benaka.

It’s Acronym for Bengaluru Nagara Kalavidaru. Karanth joins the National School Of Drama, and Prema took a teaching job in Delhi, and after he graduated, eventually he became its director. 

When he was in graduation, the national school of drama was head by Ibrahim Alkazi. Karanth also worked as a drama instructor at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya. After completing all the tasks both Prema and Karanth returned to Bangalore. 

Afterward, Karanth came back to the National School of drama in 1977 as its director. Now he did an effortless work and it to the theater to all corners of India and, it gains prominent popularity.  Then onwards, we conducted various workshops in Tamil Nadu.

Seeing the hard work the, Madhya Pradesh government asks him to head the Rang Mandal reparatory under the supervision of the Bharat Bhavan. After rendering valuable service to Rang Mandal between 1981 to 1986 he returned to Karnataka. He is dignified by PADMA SHREE.

During his service in Madhya Pradesh, some women activists put the allegation that he has an affair with actress Vibha Mishraand in the drunk state, he effused kerosene over her and burnt her. But after recovering, Vibha gave a statement and proved that Karanth is innocent and made him free from all charges.

He is a real talent. His contributions are immortal. In 1989 he was asked by the Karnataka government to setup Rangayana reparatory inMysore. Karanth brought a revolution in the Kannada industry. He directed hundreds of plays in variouslanguages such as English, Gujarati, and Kannada.

The contemporary use of music was his biggest contribution to the theater. He directed four feature films and four documentaries. He had also co-directed many films. In 2012 a movie BV Karanth: Baba released, which focused on his life.

He wrote his autobiography Allige Hogalaare ( I can’t stay here and I won’t go there), and it compiled by renowned Kannada writer Vaidehi. He had prostate cancer in the 1990s and he died on1st September 2002 at 8:00 p.m.(IST) in Bangalore, India.