The Karnataka Lekhakiyara Sangha (KLS) on Saturday released documentary films on 15 prominent Kannada women writers namely B.N. Sumithrabai, Vijaya Dabbe, Sunanda Belgaumkar, Prathibha Nandakumar, Nuggehalli Pankaja, Neeladevi, Kamala Hampana, Veena Shanteshwar, Geetha Nagabhushana, Vaidehi, Vijaya, H.S. Parvathi, Malathi Pattanshetty, Prema Bhat and Sara Aboobakar.
The documentary films have been made by D.S. Suresh and the project was funded by the Karnataka Lekhakiyara Sangha. For the project taken up at a cost of Rs. 18 lakh, the State government contributed Rs. 8 lakh. As much as Rs. 10 lakh was raised through public donations from agencies such as Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation and Karnataka Milk Federation.
According to Mr. Suresh, he got the inputs for the documentaries from 170 people, including writers, and more than 225 people worked with him on the project for a year.
Sangha president Vasundhara Bhoopathi said that she had resolved to document the contributions of women writers after she assumed office of the president of the sangha. With the release of 15 documentary films on equal number of women writers, who have received the Anupama Award in the past 22 years, the first phase of the project is completed. In the next phase, the sangha plans to document the contributions of seven more women writers who have won the Anupama Award.
“Documentary films can reach out to even people who are not literates. It will help them know about women writers and their contributions to literature”, she said.
The documentary films were released at a function organised to present the Anupama Award to the former Minister and writer B.T. Lalitha Naik. Telugu writer P. Lalitha Kumari gave away the award.
