Girish Raghunath Karnad (Kannada: ಗಿರೀಶ್ ಕಾರ್ನಾಡ್; born 19 May 1938) is an Indian actor, film director, writer and playwright who predominantly works in South Indian cinema. His rise as a playwright in 1960s, marked the coming of age of modern Indian playwriting in Kannada, just as Badal Sarkar did in Bengali, Vijay Tendulkar in Marathi, and Mohan Rakesh in Hindi. He is a recipient of the 1998 Jnanpith Award, a prestigious literary honour conferred in India