Prakash Belawadi

He hails from Bangalore. He has participated in many seminars, conferences and festivals in India and abroad. He is a motivational speaker at events and TEDx conferences. He is also a mentor with the founding team of BISFF (Bengaluru International Short Film Festival) since 2010.

Prakash Belawadi
Belawadi during the making of theatrical play of Parva, in 2020-21
Born	3rd March 1961 Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Alma mater	UVCE, Bangalore
Occupation(s)	Actor, filmmaker
Notable work	Madras Cafe Airlift The Tashkent Files The Kashmir Files
Political party	Lok Satta Party
Spouse	Chandrika
Children	2
Parent	Bhargavi Narayan (mother)
Relatives	Sudha Belawadi (sister) Samyukta Hornad (niece)

Belawadi was born into a family of theatre artists in Bangalore, in the erstwhile Mysore State (now Karnataka). His father, Belawadi Nanjundaiah Narayan (1929–2003) popularly known as Makeup Nani, was a personality in Kannada theatre, who also appeared in films, and worked as a make-up artist. His mother, Bhargavi Narayan, was 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. 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. He obtained a degree in mechanical engineering from University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering in 1983,

• Prakash Belawadi's debut film Stumble, which he wrote and directed, won the National Award for Best Film in the English language, 2003.
• He was conferred ‘Pratibha Bhushan’ in 2003 by the Government of Karnataka for his contribution to culture.
• He was recipient of Karnataka Nataka Academy Award (2011–12) for his contribution to English and Kannada-language theatre, and
• He was awarded the ‘Pride of Karnataka’ by Bangalore Round Table (2015),.
• He was the ‘Varshada Kannadiga’ (2015) in the field of entertainment, conferred by News 18 Kannada.
• He was given Helpmann Award, Australia (2019) for Best Actor, Male in the play 'Counting and Cracking', Belvoir St. Theatre, Sydney".

Belawadi as mentioned earlier has participated in many seminars, conferences and festivals in India and abroad, including the Beyond Bollywood conference at the Gothenburg International Film Festival, 2010 the Performing Arts Market conference in Seoul, 2011 the 50th Theatertreffen – annual theatre festival meet at Berlin, 2013 and the seminar and exhibition, ‘Nature – A Good Idea’ at Trollhättan, Sweden in 2014. He has been faculty for film courses in Sweden and Istanbul, Turkey.

 

 

Films

Television

As director

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

But Belawadi believes he belongs to the stage.

Belawadi is one of the founding members of Citizens for Bengaluru, an active platform for people to engage with the city government to make it accountable to citizens. 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.