Prakash Belawad is a Bengaluru-based actor, filmmaker and theatre personality known for his work across Indian cinema and the stage.A keen observer of the city’s cultural and civic life, he has long been an influential voice in Bengaluru’s creative circles and its wider public discourse.
You did your PU at National College. Can you share a fond memory from your days there?
National College in Basavanagudi was like heaven. We had some great teachers, but we began our First PUC ‘A’ Section dramatically, by someone, who shall remain unnamed, setting off a cracker with an agarbatti, with the ‘time bomb’ device hidden in the desk, while our lecturer, teaching English, was taking attendance. She started screaming…
You have seen Bengaluru change enormously over the decades. What is one thing about the old city that you miss the most?
There was a grace to the city and its ways. City Central Library, footpaths to walk on, safer roads to ride bicycles, double-decker buses, cooler and more predictable weather, gentler behaviour — I miss all of it, and, especially, the spring rain which came down in the evening when the temperature crossed 30 degrees! Now we get floods & falling trees!
Is there a neighbourhood, street, or public space in the city that has played a particularly important role in your life?
The steps of Ravindra Kalakshetra and Vidhana Soudha, welcoming to all… Walks around the Jayanagar shopping complex, Bharat Cafe, cycling to the movies and ice cream on MG Road, Jyothiprakash Stores & Daffodils near National College, Koshy’s…
Is there a Bengaluru institution that you feel the city must preserve at all costs?
Our old restaurants, clubs, places of performance, parks and public spaces and heritage buildings in the city centre, old Cantonment and south Bengaluru areas — Chamarajpet, Basavanagudi and Jayanagar — must all be revived to their former full glory and preserved forever.
What is the most Bengaluru thing about Bengaluru — something outsiders may not immediately notice?
If you don’t have class and decency of real Bengaluru, it does not matter how rich you are… You will be an outsider, always.
Complete the sentence: ‘Bengaluru feels most like home to me when…’
…and if ever again I see a gubbacchi (sparrow)…
As someone who has engaged with civic issues, what is the one change you’d like to see in the way the city is governed?
A mayor or empowered city authority, who is from the city, elected by the citizens, free from the clutches of Vidhana Soudha.
