U.R Anantha Murthy

U.R Ananthamurthy (1932 – 2014) was a contemporary writer and critic in the Kannada language born in Thirtahalli Taluk and is considered as one of the pioneers of the Navya movement in Kannada. He is the sixth person among eight recipients of the Jnanpith Award for the Kannada language, the highest literary honor conferred in India. In 1998, he received the Padma Bhushan award from the Government of India. He was one of the finalists of Man Booker International Prize for the year 2013.

Ananthamurthy started his career as a professor and instructor in 1970 in English department of University of Mysore. He was the Vice-Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam, Kerala from 1987 to 1991. He served as the Chairman of National Book Trust India for the year 1992. In 1993 he was elected as the president of Sahitya Academy. He served as a visiting professor in many renowned Indian and foreign universities including Jawaharlal Nehru University, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, University of Iowa, Tufts University and Shivaji University. Ananthamurthy served twice as the chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India. In 2012 he was appointed the first Chancellor of Central University of Karnataka.

A project that started as a documentary film for Information and Broadcast Ministry, Karnataka Government, we continued documenting the life and times of Dr. U.R. Anantha Murthy for almost a year in depth and beyond the requirement of the documentary we were shooting.

The documentation has 8 hours footage of Dr. URA talking about his life and inspirations and almost 10 hours footage of various people talking about Dr. URA.