BANGALORE: He is literally the clown with the golden heart. Nagaraj Kote, the multi-faceted talent best known for his comic capers on the small screen, is an achiever whose gains go far beyond the material world. Although he has not reached the pinnacle as a comedian, his has been a sustained presence of about 25 years in Kannada cinema and TV, his comic act being unique to his appearance and characterisation, without being typecast.
The unassuming artiste has outdone himself this time by being the first ever comedian in the state to launch his own website, www.nagarajkote.com, which is not merely a first person account of his life and work, but also an exhaustive text on current social and environmental problems, routed however, through his works.
A theatre person, writer, poet, comedy artiste, and environmentalist, he has straddled the various mediums with a personal involvement and concern that is a rare attribute.
Even as actor MS Umesh launched the website at a simple function on Wednesday, Kote’s “mentor”, well-known theatre person and film maker TS Nagabharana, released a comedy video cassette, ‘Nage Tonic’ — a series of six skits with contemporary themes such as the city’s increasing crime rate, communicated with a subtle message, through humour.
Kote grabbed headlines in 2005, when he staged a play, Nele, atop a tree. His ingenuity attracted public attention on the importance of trees. This fete entered the Limca Book of World Records. Nage Tonic is the fourth such cassette of Kote, with the earlier ones dealing with topics such as literacy, each with concrete suggestions on how to improve matters. The catchy caption, No Expiry, on the jacket of Nage Tonic, tells a story in itself.