Prakash Belawadi

Belawadi was born into a family of theatre artists in Bangalore, in the erstwhile Mysore State (now Karnataka).^[8] 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.^[9] 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.^[10] He obtained a degree in mechanical engineering from University of Visvesvaraya College of Engineering in 1983.^[11]

• Prakash Belawadi's debut film Stumble, which he wrote and directed, won the National Award for Best Film in the English language, 2003.^[12]
• He was conferred ‘Pratibha Bhushan’ in 2003 by the Government of Karnataka for his contribution to culture.^[13]
• He was recipient of Karnataka Nataka Academy Award (2011–12) for his contribution to English and Kannada-language theatre.^[14] and
• He was awarded the ‘Pride of Karnataka’ by Bangalore Round Table (2015).^[15]
• He was the ‘Varshada Kannadiga’ (2015) in the field of entertainment, conferred by News 18 Kannada.^[16]
• He was given Helpmann Award, Australia (2019) for Best Actor, Male in the play 'Counting and Cracking', Belvoir St. Theatre, Sydney".^[17][18]

Belawadi as mentioned earlier has participated in many seminars, conferences and festivals in India^{[19][20][21][22][23]} and abroad, including the Beyond Bollywood conference at the Gothenburg International Film Festival, 2010 ^[24] the Performing Arts Market conference in Seoul, 2011 ^[25] the 50th Theatertreffen – annual theatre festival meet at Berlin, 2013 ^[26] and the seminar and exhibition, ‘Nature – A Good Idea’ at Trollhättan, Sweden in 2014.^[27] He has been faculty for film courses in Sweden and Istanbul, Turkey.^[28]