Chammatira Praveen Uthappa

Born and brought up at Halligattu village near Ponnampet, , has carved a niche for himself in the field of Journalism working as a  reporter of the Vijayakarnataka, Mysore Mitra and Hosadigantha Kannada daily Newspapers. He has held the post of the President of the Press Club of Gonicoppa. He has served as a Chief secretary as well as the President of the Taluk Press Club of Virajpet.

Family

Father

Chammatira Kuttappa

Mother

Saraswathi

Born

17-10-1979

Career

As Actor

An eminent kodava actor who  has acted in movies like “Ponnra Manass” and “Jadi Male” along with working as a co-Director in the same. ” He has scripted two Lyrics for the movie “Ponnra Manass ” which later won the state award too. As a Co- director of the movie “Jadi Male”, he has displayed great skills in acting too. He has lent his voice to the lead characters in both the movies and won accolades for his voice delivery. He has enacted in several Kodava Plays and is instrumental in setting up a drama troupe called ” yanga kalaranga”. He is the founder Secretary of this drama troupe. Enactment of Plays which is taking a backseat nowadays is tried to be revived by training young artistes by conducting workshops.

In Journalism

      He has strived to conduct Kavigoshti during the annual Dasara festival. He has discharged his duties in various capacities as the President as well as the Secretary of the Gonicoppa Dasara Kavigoshti programmes. He has earned recognition for his meticulous services as the Chief Secretary of the Kodagu District Chutuku Sahitya Parishad and also as the Chief Secretary of the Kannada Sahitya Parishad of the Virajpet Taluk.

    He has presented  several papers and delivered talks on various occasions. The paper presentation by him especially on the topic of ” The role of Media in the development of Kodava language ” received great appreciation at the District level Literary and Cultural fest organized by the Karnataka Kodava Sahitya Academy at Hudikeri.

     As a poet with a fascination to compose poems, he has penned several poems and recited them in various District level and State level programmes. With a special fervour towards Kodava culture, customs, traditions and rituals, he has contributed greatly towards safeguarding it. He has participated in several programmes related to the historical Village greens popularly referred to as ” Mandh” Culture. He has rendered tremendous services as the ‘ Oor Thakka ‘, the customary Village head of the Kaimudike Kol Mandh at Kunda Village. He engages in almost all the traditional dance forms and  singing of the folklore, i.e the AAT – PAAT related to our cultural practices. He is instrumental in constituting the  Akhila Kodava Samaja Youth Wing and is the designated President of this Kodava Youth force.

 ◆Services and awards in Journalism◆

 He has lingered in the field of Journalism for over 25 years. As a proud Kodava he is running a Kannada weekly  newspaper under his ownership called ” Kodagu Vaarthe ” since 11 years. He is presently the editor and publisher of Kodagu Vaarthe He is a leading Journalist engaged in the field of weekly newspaper and is the lone Kodava writer of the Kannada weeklies not only in Kodagu but also in Karnataka.

  Kodagu Vaarthe has made a mark in Kodava Journalism by clinching the titles for three consecutive years for the best investigation reports award instituted every year at the district level. He holds a record as the hatric recipient of this prestigious award.

     ln 2014-15 he has  Bagged the State award in a ceremony held at Hassan. He is the first and only journalist of Kodagu to be felicitated with this prestigious state award for a weekly newspaper. With this Kodagu Vaarthe has thereby created a milestone at the state level in the field of journalism. To commemorate the anniversary of Kodagu Vaarthe several competitions like essay writing and debates are conducted to school and college students to encourage written and spoken skills among students. Kodagu Vaarthe has also  won the celebrated Giridhar award conferred by the State level Working Association of Journalists for the best investigation report , in  the year 2015 in a State level function held at Hassan and received  it from the  MLA of Chickamagalur Shri. C.T. Ravi.

   While the new reports in Kodagu Vaarthe are not restricted only to investigation reports , it also dwells on issues of humanitarian concerns. In the year 2012-13 the article ” The begging bowl in the hands of our future citizens” that featured in Kodagu Vaarthe weekly was honoured with the Best Humanitarian report award. Many dropouts walked back to school shunning their regular practices of beggary. The same article received the Best Humanitarian article award at the district level too.

He is also a recipient of the best investigation report for unearthing the Pushpa Murder case.

Award for best investigation was also conferred on him at the district level for the report of the suspicious treasure traced at Ammathi.

In 2013-14 the report relating to the misappropriation of funds at the Ponnampet VSSN by the couple   Addanda Cariappa and Anitha cariappa grabbed the district level award for the best investigation report. Likewise, the award for best investigation reports were continually bagged by him for three years .

In  just 11 years of its functioning, the weekly  newspaper Kodagu Vaarthe won 2 State and 4 district awards in all and has 6 awards to its credit. He resorted to giving up all awards in future inorder to  encourage budding journalists. He stuck to_ his words by refraining from award functions for three years. Thereafter, He Rejected the Karnataka Samskrithika Academy’s Karnataka Bhushana award for the same reason. He has penned several poems and has a great collection. He still continues to compose poems for rendition. Although, many more achievements could be cited  but only a few memorable ones are recorded in this article.