BENGALURU: What began as a college student’s curiosity in the 1970s has grown into a five-decade-long journey of creating Kannada crosswords for generations of readers. At 74, AN Prahlada Rao has crossed the 52,000-mark and continues to create around three crosswords a day.
Rao’s interest in crosswords began when he was studying at Government College, Kolar, between 1972 and 1975. Initially, he experimented with arranging a few words across and down. After working as a journalist in Kolar, he moved to Bengaluru in 1983 after joining the Information Department.
His regular journey as a crossword creator began around 1989-90, when he received an opportunity to create a daily crossword for a leading Kannada daily.
At a time when Kannada newspapers largely carried crosswords in weekly publications, Rao began producing them for daily newspapers. Over the years, his crosswords have appeared in several leading Kannada dailies, magazines and periodicals.
“I was a very big fan of English crosswords. When I got the opportunity to write a daily crossword in Kannada, I started it,” Rao said.
Over the years, Rao has created crosswords on a wide range of subjects, including Kannada cinema, history, science, food, crime and general knowledge. Cinema, however, became one of his major areas of interest after magazines began asking him to create film-themed crosswords. “I started collecting film data. Because of that collection, I was able to write cinema-related books and crosswords. Many magazines also asked me to write cinema crosswords,” he said.
His work has included cinema-themed crosswords for several publications. The extensive information he collected on films, actors and personalities also became the basis for books. Rao said he has written several books related to Kannada cinema and personalities, with his publications on crosswords and related subjects now numbering around 30.
Creating thousands of puzzles has also required him to constantly expand his knowledge and find different ways of framing clues. While the same Kannada word may appear more than once, he said the challenge is to provide a different clue or context each time.
Rao also keeps track of crossword practices in English publications to understand how crossword creators elsewhere develop their puzzles. The process has changed considerably with technology. Earlier, he would draw the grids on paper and write the clues by hand. A crossword could take around two-and-a-half hours. With computers, the process has become much faster, and he said a 9x9 or 11x11 crossword can now take about 15 to 20 minutes.
Despite the scale of his work, Rao says the response from readers remains his biggest motivation. He has seen students, senior citizens and homemakers regularly spend time solving his puzzles.
“I am very proud of this crossword writing. So many people like it and are satisfied when they are able to solve all the clues,” he said.
His contribution has also received formal recognition. Rao’s name was included in the Limca Book of Records in 2016 for his achievement as a crossword creator in an Indian regional language. He said the record continued to appear for three years. In 2024, he also received a Karnataka State Award.
Rao believes Kannada has a large community of crossword solvers, although there are comparatively few people creating such puzzles. He feels this presents an opportunity for more people to enter the field.
On the growing use of artificial intelligence, Rao said he has experimented with AI-generated crosswords but found limitations in the quality of clues and word arrangements. However, he does not rule out a larger role for technology in future. For Rao, the journey from manually drawn grids in Kolar to computer-created puzzles has been one of constant adaptation. After more than five decades, the crossword remains a daily exercise both for him as a creator and for the Kannada readers who continue to solve his puzzles.