Popular actor, director, playwright and social activist Girish Karnad, has passed away at his residence located in Lavelle Road, Bangalore. The actor was aged 81. He had been suffering from illness for quite sometime, and had passed away after battling the prolonged illness.

Girish Karnad has been a key part of Indian playwriting as he had penned many plays based on mythology and history to deal with contemporary subjects,and has also been an actor as well as director, winning multiple national and filmfare awards for his works in Cinema.

Girish Karnad had been conferred Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri awards by the Indian government. The actor is a well known face among Kollywood audience for having acted in notable movies like Naan Adimai Illai with Superstar Rajnikanth, Shankar's Kadhalan, Nagarjuna starrer Ratchagan etc, and was last seen in Tamil in Suriya starrer 24.