Happy Birthday Dayal Padmanabhan: A tour into the life of the Kannada filmmaker

Dayal Padmanabhan is one of the prominent filmmakers in Sandalwood. He has been a director, writer, actor, executive producer, producer, screenplay writer, production designer as well as a costume designer at various points in time. Dayal made his debut as a writer in the Kannada film industry with the 2000 movie ‘Om Ganesh’ which was directed by Thriller Manju. He is known for his creative writing and different and unique style of screenplay. Dayal Padmanabhan is celebrating his 50th birthday today. And on the occasion, we take you on a tour into his life in Sandalwood.

Dayal Padmanabhan was born on June 14, 1970 in Villupuram town, to parents Padmanabhan and Radha Padmanabhan. He lost his father, who was working with the Tamil Nadu electricity board, at a very early age. Dayal had an interest in acting ever since he was young and Tamil actor Murali was his role model. He wanted to become an actor, but destiny made him a director and a writer. He completed his education with a Diploma in Civil Engineering from Muthiah Polytechnic, Chidambaram, and B.E. from the famous B.M.S. College of Engineering, Bangalore. Later, he made his debut in the Kannada film industry in 2000 as a writer in ‘Om Ganesh’.

As a writer, Dayal Padmanabhan tries to bring to the fore stories from Kannada plays and novels and make it into interesting plots for films. He has made movies based on the novels written by the late Shri. Parvathavani and Shri. Mohan Habbu. He has also written screenplays and dialogues for most of the movies he writes. His screenplays are known to be very unique and notable in the Kannada film industry. He has written stories for movies like ‘Hudugigage’, ‘H2O’, ‘Gattimela’, ‘Circus’, ‘Yogaraj But’, ‘Toss’ and others.

After becoming a successful writer, he made his directorial debut with the movie ‘Ok Saar OK’ in 2003, and went on to direct many movies like ‘Baa Baaro Rasika’, ‘Circus’, ‘Masala’, ‘Sri Harikathe’, 'Haggadha Kone’ and other movies. His directional talent has been well appreciated by the audience time and again.

Dayal Padmanabhan is not just a director and writer but also a producer who has produced many interesting stories. He has worked as an executive producer for the movie ‘Gaalipata’, where he also played the role of a mute person. Later, he produced the 2009 film ‘Circus’ starring Ganesh in the lead role and co-produced ‘Shriharikathe’ under his own production house. He has produced many other movies like, ‘Yogaraj But’, ‘Haggada Kone’ and ‘Ombattane Dikku’.

After working in different roles in the Kannada film industry, Dayal got the attention of the critics as well as the audience and was selected for many awards. He first won the Times of India Film Award for Best Screenplay for the 2011 movie ‘Yogaraj But’. Later, he also won two Karnataka State Film Awards for the 2014 movie ‘Haggada Kone’ under the Best Film and Best Director categories. He also won the Karnataka State Film Award in 2018 for the movie ‘Aa Karaala Ratri’ under the Best Director category.