Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Aug 11: Rekha V Bannadi, office bearer of Dr H Shantaram Literary Award Selection Committee, announced at a press conference held here on Wednesday August 10 that ‘Swapna Saraswata’, a novel written by litterateur, Perla Gopalakrishna Pai, has been chosen for the state level Dr Shantaram Literary Award.

“The award will be presented at a function to be organized at Bhandakar’s College Kundapur on August 13. The award comprises cash component of Rs 15,000, a silver medal, and a citation, she revealed.

The said novel unfolds before the readers an integrated picture of the history and other aspects of Konkani community. The novel has already been translated into English. Translation of the novel into Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam, Bengali, Tamil and Telugu languages is in progress, she revealed.

Gopalakrishna Pai, a native of Perla in Kasargod, Kerala, has written a number of novels and collections of short stories. He had written the script for the award-winning Kannada movie by Girish Kasaravalli, ‘Kanasemba Kudureyanneri. He also had penned the dialogues for ‘Bettada Jeeva’ directed by P Sheshadri. He bagged an award meant for the best script for the above film. He also has written story and dialogues for the Konkani movie, ‘Ujwadu’ being directed by Kasargod Chinna, she explained.

Honorary president of the committee, Dr H Shantaram, Prof Chandrashekhar Doma, Vasant Bannadi, and Rajesh K C were present at the press conference.