Prakash Belawadi

Prakash Belawadi (Kannada: ಪ್ರಕಾಶ್ ಬೆಳವಾಡಿ) is an Indian theater, film, television and media personality, teacher, activist and journalist from Bangalore. Belawadi has participated in many seminars, conferences and festivals in India and abroad. He has been 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.

Early life
Belawadi was born into a family of theatre artistes in Bangalore, in the erstwhile Mysore State (now Karnataka). His father, Belavadi Nanjundaiah Narayan (1929–2003) popularly known as Make-up Nani, was a personality in Kannada theatre, who also appeared in films, and worked as a make-up artist alongside. His mother, Bhargavi, is 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, Bangalore. He obtained a degree in mechanical engineering from University 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.

As director

 * His debut film feature has now been included in the national telecaster Doordarshan's Best of Indian Cinema series.
 * The serial ‘Garva’, which he wrote and directed in 2001 is still considered a classic among Kannada serials.

But Belawadi believes he belongs to the stage.

As activist
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 22nd April, International Mother Earth Day and 5th 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.