Jnanpith awardee T. P. Kailasam – Kannada writer, playwright Chandrashekhar Kambar - Jnanapith awardee for his contributions to Kannada literature K. Shivaram Karanth – Kannada writer, Jnanapith awardee Girish Karnad – Kannada writer, playwright, actor, Jnanpith awardee K. S. Nissar Ahmed – Kannada poet Sudha Murthy Other writers Mahesh Dattani – English playwright and Sahitya Akademi award winner Ramachandra Guha – historian and Sahitya Akademi award winner Anita Nair – English author of the books Ladies Coupe and Mistress Malathi Rao – English-language writer, Sahitya Akademi award winner Madhuri Vijay – English-language writer, Pushcart Prize winner Entrepreneurs G. R. Gopinath – founder of Deccan Aviation and Deccan 360 Kiran Mazumdar – founder of Biocon, a biotechnology company N. R. Narayana Murthy – founder of Infosys Nandan Nilekani – Co-founder of Infosys V. G. Siddhartha – founder of Café Coffee Day Sportspersons Athletics Ashwini Nachappa – former athlete Auto Racing Arjun Maini – Asian Le Mans Series and Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Driver Akhil Rabindra – GT4 European Series Driver Badminton Prakash Padukone – badminton player Ashwini Ponnappa Billiards Pankaj Advani – billiards and snooker World Champion Cricket Mayank Agarwal – Indian cricketer John Bean – English first-class cricketer and British Army officer Vijay Bhardwaj – former Indian allrounder Raghuram Bhat – former Indian left-arm spinner Roger Binny – former Indian all rounder Stuart Binny – all rounder B. S. Chandrasekhar – Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1972 Rahul Dravid – batsman, former India Captain and has taken highest number of catches in international cricket Dodda Ganesh – former medium pacer Sunil Joshi – retired all rounder Syed Kirmani – retired wicket-keeper Prasidh Krishna – fast bowler Veda Krishnamurthy – Indian woman cricketer Vinay Kumar – medium pacer Anil Kumble – leg spinner, Test Captain, India's highest wicket taker, former Indian National Cricket Team coach Abhimanyu Mithun – Indian cricketer Devdutt Padikkal – Ranji player Manish Pandey – Indian cricketer Venkatesh Prasad – retired fast bowler; India's former bowling coach Erapalli Prasanna – retired off spinner KL Rahul – Indian cricketer Javagal Srinath – retired fast bowler, match referee Robin Uthappa – Indian cricketer Vellaswamy Vanitha – former Indian woman cricketer Sadanand Viswanath – former Indian wicket-keeper Gundappa Ranganath Vishwanath – former Indian cricket captain (1979–1980) Hockey Ashish Ballal – hockey goalkeeper Arjun Halappa – Indian hockey team Swimming Nisha Millet – Olympian at Sydney Olympics 2000 Tennis Rohan Bopanna Entertainers