Famous Kannada Poet K S Na passed away in a “Raathri” of December– He who wrote the famous song “Raayaru Bandharu Maavana Manege Raathriyaagithu” of the 'Mysooru Mallige' fame.

K S Narasimhaswamy popularly known as K S Na remains modern Kannada literature's famous romantic poet. His collection of Poems “Mysooru Mallige” was made into a very successful movie that won a National Award.

Dr. A N Murthy Rao

Noted Kannada writer and essayist Prof A N Murthy Rao passed away at the age of 103.

Winner of the Sahitya Academy Award for his work Devaru, Prof Rao was a trend setter in Kannada essay writing. Chitragalu-Patragalu, Devaru, Hagalukanasugalu, America Yathre, Pashchatya and Ashadabuthi are some of his well known works.

G V Iyer

Noted film director Ganapathi Venkataramana Iyer, popularly known as G V Iyer, died in Mumbai, at the age 87.

Iyer's Adi Shankaracharya, the first ever film made in Sanskrit, depicting an important aspect of ancient Hindu sage and scholar Shankaracharya's philosophy of advaita (monism).

Iyer later made similar films on Hindu philosophy with his films on Madhavacharya (Indian saint who propounded the theory of dvaita or dualism) and Ramanujacharya (creator of the vishishtadvaita or qualified monism school of thought).

Ramakrishna Hegde

Hegde, who was twice chief minister of Karnataka, was commerce minister in Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's coalition government of 1998-99.

Lately he moved away from politics and was the convener of the Indo-French Roundtable, a forum for regular dialogue between civil society representatives from both countries.