Girish Kasaravalli

Girish Kasaravalli (born 3 December 1950) is an Indian film director, in the Kannada cinema, and one of the pioneers of the Parallel Cinema. Known internationally for his works, Kasaravalli has garnered fourteen National Film Awards, including four Best Feature Films; Ghatashraddha (1977), Tabarana Kathe (1986), Thaayi Saheba (1997) and Dweepa (2002). In 2011, he was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award by Government of India.

A gold medalist from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, The film he made to fulfill his diploma, Avashesh, was awarded the Best Student Film and the National Film Award for Best Short Fiction Film for that year. He has received thirteen National Film Awards.

 

Notable filmography 

Year	Film	Language	Notes
1977	Ghatashraddha	Kannada	National Film Award for Best Feature Film
1980	Akramana	Kannada
1981	Mooru Darigalu	Kannada
1987	Tabarana Kathe	Kannada	National Film Award for Best Feature Film
1988	Bannada Vesha	Kannada	National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Kannada
1990	Mane	Kannada	National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Kannada
1991	Ek Ghar	Hindi
1992	Kubi Matthu Iyala	Kannada	Screenplay and Dialogues only
1996	Kraurya	Kannada	National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Kannada
1997	Thaayi Saheba	Kannada	National Film Award for Best Feature Film
2002	Dweepa	Kannada	National Film Award for Best Feature Film
2003	Grihabhanga	Kannada	Tele Series
2004	Hasina	Kannada
2006	Naayi Neralu	Kannada
2008	Gulabi Talkies	Kannada	National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Kannada
2010	Kanasemba Kudureyaneri	Kannada	National Film Award for Best Screenplay
2012	Koormavatara	Kannada	National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Kannada

Ref Wikipedia .

Career 

Kasaravalli graduated from FTII Pune in 1975, with a specialisation in film direction. The world of Kurosawa, Ray, Ozu, Fellini and Antonioni inspired him, and his conviction in neo-realist cinema deepened. In an interview many years later, he recollected how he was inspired by these filmmakers, especially Ozu. While in his final year, he was chosen to be the assistant director for B. V. Karanth for the film Chomana Dudi. He passed out of the FTII with a gold medal to his credit. His student film Avasesh won the President’s Silver Lotus award for the best experimental short film of the year.

His first film as an independent director was Ghatashraddha in 1977; it won him the Golden Lotus and a few international awards. This film was followed by many more masterpieces. For a short while, he served as the principal of a film institute in Bangalore.

He has worked as associate director for T. S. Nagabharana’s Grahana movie during 1981 He won his second Golden Lotus for Tabarana Kathe in 1987. Considered as one of the best edited films in India, it deals with the futile efforts of a retired government servant to earn his pension. In 1997, he came up with another masterpiece, Thaayi Saheba which won him his third Golden Lotus award. Thaayi Saheba is considered to be the most mature work of the director, dealing with the transition in the Indian society from the pre- to the post-independence periods.

The narrative structure was unique, and it had a powerful way of depicting a social situation. He repeated his success with Dweepa in 2002 starring late actress Soundarya. It won his fourth Golden Lotus award. Dweepa was different from his earlier films: It used music extensively and was visually stunning. Apart from these four films winning Golden Lotusawards, Kasaravalli directed Akramana in 1979, Mooru darigalu in 1981, Bannada Vesha in 1988, Mane in 1990, Kraurya in 1996, Hasina in 2004 and Naayi Neralu in 2006.

Naayi Neralu dealt with a very intense and bizarre concept of reincarnation, based on the novel with the same name by S.L. Bhyrappa. Kasaravalli has given a different interpretation of the subject. It won the Best Film award at KARA film festival, Karachi thus making it the first ever Kannada film to win the top honour in any international festival.

In 2008 he directed Gulabi Talkies based on a short story of the same name by Vaidehi. It was shown in many international film festivals, winning awards and accolades. In 2010, he made Kanasemba Kudureyaneri (Riding the Stallion of Dreams) which, too, won him many international awards. He has finished his Koormavatara (The Tortoise, an Incarnation) which won the National film award for the best Kannada film of 2011. In 2015 he made a documentary film on Adoor Gopalakrishnan named Images/Reflections.

The International Film Festival of Rotterdam held a retrospective of Kasaravalli’s films in 2003. In August 2017, the Entertainment Society of Goa organized a film festival in Goa in his honor.