U. R. Ananthamurthy

Udupi Rajagopalacharya Ananthamurthy was a writer and critic in the Kannada language from India. He was born on December 21, 1932, in Thirthahalli Taluk. He received his education from Mysore University and the University of Birmingham from 1950-2014. He met his wife Esther in the year 1954, and they got married in the year 1956. Together they had two children, Sharath and Anuradha. He was vice-chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala in 1980. Udupi Rajagopalacharya Ananthamurthy mostly writes stories, novels, poetry, and criticism on various themes and literary movements. His principal works include Prashne, Aakasha Mattu Bekku, Samskara, Bhava, and Bharathipura.

Many films are created based on his novels, like Samskara, Bara, Avast, Mouni, Sookha, Ghatashraddha, and Diksha. He was honored with several awards like the Rajyotsava Award in 1984, Jnanpith Award in 1994, Padma Bhushan in 1998, Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 2004, and Nadoja Award by Kannada University in 2008, and shortlisted for The Hindu Literary Prize in 2011, D. Litt. Honoris Causa of the University of Calcutta in 2012, Basheer Puraskaram in 2012, and was nominated for the Man Booker International Prize in 2013. He died on August 22, 2014, in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, due to kidney failure and cardiac arrest.