Karnad turns down award

The jury, appointed by the State Government to select awardees for the State film awards, had chosen Girish Karnad for Puttanna Kanagal award.

Karnad, in his message sent to the media, said: “I have thanked the Director, Kannada and Culture for awarding the Puttanna Kanagal Award to me and regretted my inability to accept the honour.”

Kananda and Culture director Manu Baligar said Karnad called him over phone from Kolkata to thank the government for choosing him for the award and informed him that he would not accept it. Baligar in turn passed on the message to Ramesh Zalki, secretary for Kannada and Culture and Information.

The jury had earlier chosen director K S R Das for the honour. After a section of journalists raised objections to the selection in the press conference on Friday, jury chairman Bhargava altered the list by replacing Das’ name with Girish Karnad.

On Friday, reacting to the award, Karnad had said, “I left direction about 10 years ago. Now it is like getting a posthumous award. I consider this as an honour. I have no idea about the confusion regarding the award.” But a day later he decided not to accept it.