BENGALURU: Noted filmmaker Suresh Heblikar, was one of many in the theatre fraternity who counted on Karnad as a friend. Speaking to The New Indian Express, he said that he first ran into Karnad when he gave a talk at the Karnataka College where Heblikar was a student.
Later, they met on the sets of Samskara and became good friends. “He acted in three of my movies--Kadina Benki, Usha Kirana and Aagatha. He believed that to be creative in theatre, one must know of various communities, literature and plays from around the world,” Heblikar recalled.
Karnad would not hold back from airing his views on any topic. “He spoke frankly about what he believed. He once told me why he spoke of the sharing of Cauvery water between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. While he was a Kannadiga, he believed that there has to be unity among various states, cultures and languages,” Heblikar recalled.
Fellow Jnanpith awardee Chandrashekar Kambar also counted Karnad as a good friend. “Not many people know that he was also a good painter. He got an autograph from T S Eliot on a portrait of him when he was in England,” Kambar recalled. “On the day I met him, Girish told me that he would refer to me in singular and that I too should refer to him in singular. From that day, we always had such a good friendship.”
(As told by filmmaker Suresh Heblikar and Jnapith awardee Chandrashekar Kambar)