Uday Prakash


Uday Prakash is a Hindi poet, scholar, journalist, translator and short story writer from India.
He has worked as administrator, editor, researcher, and TV director. He writes for major dailies and periodicals as a freelancer. He has also received several awards for his collection of short stories, Mohan Das.

Personal life

Background

Prakash was born on 1 January 1952, in the backward village of Sitapur, Anuppur, Madhya Pradesh, India. He was raised by and given primary education there by a teacher. He graduated in Science and obtained his master's degree in Hindi Literature, receiving a Gold Medal from Saugar University in 1974. From 1975–76 he was a research student at Jawaharlal Nehru University ; He was imprisoned as a passionate communist party member. He later lost interest in political ideology.

Career

In 1978 Prakash taught as an Assistant Professor at JNU, and its Imphal Center for Post Graduate Studies. In 1980 he left academia, to become Officer-on-Special-Duty with the Madhya Pradesh Department of Culture. At the same time, he was Controlling Officer of the Bhopal Rabindra Bhawan, and assistant editor of Poorvagraha, a journal of Hindi literary criticism.
From 1982–90, Prakash worked in New Delhi newspapers; first as a subeditor of the Hindi news weekly Dinmaan, and later as Assistant Editor of the Sunday Mail. In 1987 becoming Assistant Professor at the School of Social Journalism. In 1990 he joined ITV,, and became head of the PTI TV Concept and Script Department. Since 1993, he has been a full-time freelance writer.
Prakash was the editor of the monthly English language magazine "Eminence" until April 2000.
He also participated in the international poetry festivals and seminars.
Prakash returned his Sahitya Akademi award in 2015, to protest the murder of rationalist academic M. M. Kalburgi.

Films and media

'Sahitya Akademi film's on writers
Prakash has produced several films about important Hindi writers such as Ram Vilas Sharma.
In an interview, Varun Grover, the lyricist of the 2015 movie Masaan, recounted that they had wanted to use one of Uday Prakash's compositions titled "Kuch ban jate hain". The song was set to music, but at the end was not include in the film. Ultimately another song Tu rail si was used in its place.

Awards