Noted Tulu playwright and former chairman of Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy, M. K. Seetharama Kulal, died here on Sunday. He was 79 and is survived by his wife.
Mr. Kulal died in a hospital at about 12:30 p.m.
His last rites will be performed in the city on Monday.
He was the chairman of the academy from 2005 to 2008, which later conferred on him, its honorary award for 2014.
Mr. Kulal wrote 69 plays in Kannada and Tulu. Although he is popular for writing the Tulu play ‘Mannda Magal Abbakka’, his first was a Kannada play called ‘Dasi Putra’.
He has also written about 350 songs for both Tulu and Kannada plays.
He wrote hit Tulu cinema songs like ‘Pakkilu Mooji Onje Goodudu Badukondulloge’; ‘Mokeda Singari Untude Oyyari’; ‘Brahmana Barevu Majande Poanda’.
“They are the evergreen Tulu songs, even popular today,” Kishore D. Shetty, founder and actor, Lakumi Tulu theatre troupe, said.
Mr. Kulal was the Assistant Director and Writer of the Tulu film ‘Udalda Tudar’.
He was also instrumental in building the Tulu Bhavana in the city. He proposed the government to build the bhavana at the Urwa Stores in 2006, when he was the chairman of the academy.
The bhavana now houses the office of the academy and has become a place for various Tulu activities.