Prakash Belawadi

Prakash Belawadi is an Indian actor, director and screenwriter, who works predominantly in English, Kannada and Hindi theatre, films and television. He is also a theatre teacher, activist and a journalist. He hails from Bengaluru. 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.

Belawadi prefers stage acting to film acting.

Early life 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, Bangaluru. He obtained a degree in mechanical engineering from University of Visvesvaraya College of Engineering in 1983.

Awards

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".

International 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.

Partial filmography S. L. Bhyrappa (left) and Prakash Belavadi (middle) discussing about the making of theatrical play on novel Parva

Films Year Title Role Language Notes 1973 Abachurina Postofficu Kannada Child actor 1978 Muyyi Kannada Child actor 1999 Kanooru Heggadithi Obe Gowda Kannada 2001 Mathadana Kannada 2013 Madras Cafe Bala Hindi 2014 Youngistaan Murli Mukundan Hindi 2015 Benkipatna Limba Rama Kannada Uttama Villain Dr. D. S. Tamil Aatagara Dr. Chetan Bhagawat Kannada Fading Red ACP Ravikumar Kannada Short film Kendasampige DCP Suryakanth Kannada Talvar Ramshankar Pillai Hindi 2016 Wazir DCP Hindi Last Bus Sandy Kannada Airlift George Kutty Hindi Kiragoorina Gayyaligalu A Government Officer Kannada Ishtakamya Vikranth Kannada Te3n Kumar Hindi 2017 Take Off Rajan Menon Malayalam Aake PK Kannada Meri Pyaari Bindu Bindu's father Hindi Solo Vishnu MalayalamBilingual filmTamil Dayavittu Gamanisi Kannada Aval Joshua Tamil Bilingual film The House Next Door Hindi Mufti Social worker Kannada 2018 Brihaspathi Kannada Sanju Kamal Kishore "KK" Arora Hindi 2019 The Accidental Prime Minister M. K. Narayanan Hindi Thackeray George Fernandes Hindi The Least of These: The Graham Staines Story Kedar Mishra English Natasaarvabhowma Shruthi's uncle Kannada The Tashkent Files GK AnanthasureshHindi Saaho Shinde Telugu Bilingual film Hindi Katha Sangama Sathya Murthy Kannada 2020Shakuntala DeviBishaw Mitra ManiHindi Soorarai PottruPrakash Babu Tamil Yuvarathnaa Shatrughan Salimath Kannada 2021 100 Sadanand Kannada2022One Cut Two CutPruthirajKannada The Kashmir Files Dr. Mahesh Kumar Hindi India Lockdown M. Nageshwar Rao HindiHopeVijayasimhaKannadaHead BushKannada2023Pathaan Dr. SahaniHindiMysore Masala: The UFO IncidentDr. SatyaprakashKannada Pentagon KannadaAnthology film; segment Kamaturam Na Bhayam Na LajjaSavitri Dr. JayaprakashKannada 2024O2Dr. MrutyunjayKannadaThe JudgementKannada SarfiraHindi My HeroKannada Baby JohnDGP Yashraj MukherjeeHindi 2025 Fateh Aayappa Hindi Thandel Jailer Telugu Yuddhakaanda Chapter 2 Robert D'Souza Kannada 2026 Parasakthi Chief Minister of Madras State Tamil Patriot Malayalam

Television

As writer and director Year Title Credited as Language Notes Writer Director 2001 Garva Kannada Television serial 2003 Stumble English Included in Doordarshan's Best of Indian Cinema series 2023 Mandala: The UFO Incident Kannada

Activism 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.