Girish Raghunath Karnad (born 19 May 1938) is an Indian actor, film director, writer playwright and a Rhodes Scholar, who predominantly works in South Indian cinema and Bollywood. Girish karnad has translated his plays into English and has received acclaim. His plays have been translated into some Indian languages and directed by directors like Ebrahim Alkazi, B. V. Karanth, Alyque Padamsee, Prasanna, Arvind Gaur, Satyadev Dubey, Vijaya Mehta, Shyamanand Jalan, Amal Allana and Zafer Mohiuddin.