The Jnanpith Award is a literary award in India. Along with the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, it is one of the two most prestigious literary honours in the country. The award was instituted in 1961. Any Indian citizen who writes in any of the official languages of India is eligible for the honour. It is presented by the Bharatiya Jnanpith, a trust founded by the Sahu Jain family, the publishers of the The Times of India newspaper.

The name of the award is taken from Sanskrit words jnāna and pīṭha (knowledge-seat). It carries a cheque for 7 lakh, a citation plaque and a bronze replica of Saraswati, the Indian goddess of knowledge, music, and the arts.

Prior to 1982, the awards were given for a single work by a writer; since then, the award has been given for a lifetime contribution to Indian literature. Nine individuals [Including the 2009 award which is being shared by two Hindi writers] writing in Hindi have been honoured with the award, eight in Kannada, five in Bengali and Malayalam, four in Urdu and three in Gujarati, Oriya and Marathi and 2 each in Assamese, Tamil and Telugu.

Chandrashekhara Kambara (Kannada: ಚಂದ್ರಶೇಖರ ಕಂಬಾರ) (born January 2, 1937) is a prominent poet, playwright, folklorist, film director in Kannada language and the founder-vice-chancellor of Kannada University in Hampi. He is known for his effective usage of North Karnataka dialect of Kannada language in his plays and poems and is often compared with D.R. Bendre.

Dr. Kambara's plays mainly revolves around folk or mythology interlinked with contemporary issues, inculcating modern lifestyle with his hard-hitting poems and has became a pioneer of such literature. His contribution as a playwright is significant not only to Kannada theatre but also to the Indian theatre in general as he achieved a blend of the folk and the modern theatrical forms.

He has been conferred with many prestigious awards including the Jnanpith Award in 2011 for the year 2010,Sahitya Akademi Award, the Padma Shri by Government of India, Kabir Samman, Kalidas Samman and Pampa Award. After his retirement, Kambara was nominated Member of Karnataka Legislative Council, to which he made significant contributions through his interventions.

Kedar Nath Singh (born 1934) is one of the most prominent modern poets writing Hindi. He is also an eminent critic and essayist. He was awarded the 1989 Sahitya Akademi Award in Hindi for his poetry collection, Akaal Mein Saras (loose translation into English: Cranes in Drought).

He was born in village chakia of Ballia district in Uttar Pradesh in the year of 7 July 1934. He passed M.A from Kashi Hindu Vidyalaya and did P.H.D. from the same college.In Gorakhpur, he spen sometime as a Hindi Teacher and went to Jawaharlal Nehru University, where he served as a professor of Hindi Language in Indian Languages Center and retired as a professor from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.Today, he lives in New Delhi.

Kedar Nath Singh's poetry is characterized by simple, everyday language and images that string together to convey complex themes. One of his major poems is Bagh, a long poem with the tiger as its central character. Published in the mid 1980s, the poem remains one of the most widely read long poems in Hindi literature and is included in many university curricula. At some level, Bagh bears a striking resemblance to Ted Hughes' Crow, but the two remain independent in their treatment and scope.

Vijay aka Duniya Vijay (Kannada: ದುನಿಯಾ ವಿಜಯ್) is a Kannada film actor who started of as a junior film artist in the industry essaying small insignificant roles, before he got the big break in Duniya.

Vijay was born to Rudrappa and Narayanamma in a poor family in Anekal. He was not too good at studies, but was a good athlete. To support himself, he has also worked as a stuntman and a gym instructor. Vijay is married and has three children. His nephew Yogesh is also a popular Kannada hero.

Vijay met Soori and Yograj Bhat who fostered his ambition to become an actor. Vijay wanted to be a hero, but was advised to start with smaller roles so he could hone his acting skills. Vijay started off with a role in Yograj Bhat's Ranga SSLC with Sudeep. He then acted in films like Jogi, Shree, Ee Rajeev Gandhi Alla among others. He also did roles in television.

The turning point in Vijay's career came with mentor Soori's directorial debut Duniya. Vijay was cast as the idiot with the golden heart who gets mercilessly used by the underworld. His acting won rave reviews from critics, he was even appreciated personally by his idol Rajnikant. Vijay went on to win the State and Filmfare awards for his role in the film. In 2007, Vijay appeared in three more films - Yuga, Chanda and Geleya. Yuga was an action oriented film on the lines of Duniya, but it was not a box office success. Vijay did a supporting role in Geleya, when Prakash Rai walked out of the film at the last moment.