Bio

Arundhati Nag is a film and theatre actress. She has been involved with multilingual Theatre in India, for over 25 years, first in Mumbai where she got involved with Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), and did various productions in Gujarati, Marathi, and Hindi theatre, and then in Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and English, in Bangalore. Following her marriage to Kannada actor-director Shankar Nag (1954–1990), her association with theatre continued in Bangalore, where she performed several plays in Kannada: Girish Karnad’s “Anju Mallige”, “27 Mavalli Circle” based on the famous play ‘Wait Until Dark’, “Sandhya Chayya” (Jayant Dalvi), Girish Karnad’s “Nagamandala”, and Bertolt Brecht’s “Mother Courage” as “Hulaguru Huliyavva”. She also worked in several Kannada movies: “Accident” (1984), Parameshi Prema Prasanga” (1984) and “Nodiswamy, Navirodu Heege” (1987).

Nag went on to realise a long-time dream of building a theatre space dedicated to quality theatre in Bangalore Ranga Shankara. She is a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (2008), the Padma Shri (2010) and the National Film Awards (57th) in 2010.

Bio

C N Ramachandran is an eminent critic and has worked in several countries. He was professor of English at Mangalore university. His autobiography released recently and was well received by readers. He writes in Kannada and English and has more than ten books to his credit. Recipient of Karnataka Sahitya Akademi award.

Bio

Deepa Ganesh’s areas of interest are Literature, Languages, Music and Theatre. She served as Deputy Editor at The Hindu for two decades. Currently, she is Professor of Literature and Executive Director of the Centre for Visual and Performing Arts, RV University. She was the editor of the Sahitya Academy journal, Aniketana, for three years.

She has five published books: A Life in Three Octaves – The life and times of Gangubai Hangal, the doyen of Hindustani music; Hunt, Bangle, Chameleon, a collection of U R Ananthamurthy’s short stories which won the Sahitya Akademi award for translation; Just a Few Pages, a translation of the memoir of the early Kannada writer Saraswati Bai Rajwade by Vaidehi; a translation of Kaleye Kayaka as Art as Life, the autobiography of the harbinger of Kannada company theatre Gubbi Veeranna; and A Source Book of Kannada Theatre (1850-1950), co-authored with KV Akshara and Venkataramana Aithal. She has translated over 25 books for Tulika, a children’s publisher. Together with Vivek Shanbhag and KV Akshara, she has launched a publishing house, Bahuvachana, working on translations between Indian languages. She has written for several acclaimed journals, and has presented papers on all aspects of culture in various conferences.