Prakash Belawadi: The professional film industry in Karnataka is crude; I’m scared of…
Baby John actor Prakash Belawadi reckons that he is treated with far more respect outside of Karnataka than back home and recounts a horrifying incident on a set
Last Updated: 10.09 PM, Jun 11, 2025
As a veteran theatre professional, film actor and director, one would think that Prakash Belawadi has a certain standing in the industry. But if one were to go by what he says, he is not the most liked in his home state. Discussing his professional life on the Just Curious podcast, Prakash said that he is treated very well on film sets outside of Karnataka. “Here also some people treat me with respect, but generally, the professional film industry in Karnataka is quite crude in their behaviour. Not everybody, but many of them are. Outside they treat me well; they do pamper
Prakash Belawadi recounts a bad experience on set of 'big banner' film
When prodded about what he means by being treated well, Prakash explained that he once acted in a movie for a big banner in Karnataka, which he refused to name because he’s “scared of them”. “That’s how the Kannada film industry is. I am not scared about whether they will give me a role or not. Even if they give me a role and offer me Rs 10 lakh per day, I will never work under that banner. When I did a film with this production house, because the director wanted me, I did not reduce my remuneration, so, what they did is that they did not pay me the last chunk of money that was owed to me,” he explains.
Out of the four instalments, the last one was withheld and then, on the last day of shoot they sent a bunch of people to his caravan. Four men came in, ate, threw meat all around and then used the toilet until it ran out of water, then defecated and left it in unusable condition. “I was forced to sit outside because of the stench,” he says and adds, “That’s an extreme and not everyone is like that, but a lot of them do not know how to behave.”
Prakash is also not a fan of the fact that signing contracts is not an accepted norm in the Kannada film industry. “This is the only industry that doesn’t do it, everybody else does. We are really backward and an uncivilised industry. If you are a civilised person, then your word would be enough and you do not need a paper to enforce things. There was a time when the Kannada industry thrived with such civilised people,” he says.
He cites the example of the Rajkumar family, on account of having worked with both Shivarajkumar and Puneeth Rajkumar. “They are very civilised and decent and the culture on their sets is very different,” says Prakash, adding that he is not bitter about the not-too-good experiences in the Kannada film industry, because he has now learnt how to avoid them.