Malati Sirdeshpande

On July 11th, 1968, in Bilagi, Malati Sirdeshpande was born to Vasantrao and Kusuma Umarji. She had a good attachment with singing ever when she was at school in Bilagi. She so took part in singing, speech, debate, etc. competitions. In 1984.

She studied in JSS College for her PUC and CSI College for her B.Com in Dharwad. She excelled in singing and won several awards at university contests. She completed her music master's degree from Karnataka College in Dharwad. She performed in many plays throughout her time in college, including Disobedience Holidays, Tollu Gatti, and Hayavadana.

She inherited her talent for acting from her grandfather, Shri Madhvaraj Umarji, who was well-known for his acting prowess. In Dharwad, she also learned the sitar from Pandit Balekhan. She married renowned Kannada actor Shri Yashavant Sirdeshpnade in 1991. Malathi played a significant part in the drama "All The Best," which Yashavant produced and directed in 1998 and ran for more than a hundred performances. She has also appeared in the Kannada comedy "Sahi Ri Sahi." She now plays the lead in "Heegeke Ni Doora Oduve."

Since 2000, she had been in Kannada television series. At first, it was difficult, but she persevered because of her tenacity, acting talent, dedication, and enthusiasm. Her performance in the Shri T. N. Sitaram-directed television series "Manvantara" is praiseworthy. To her credit, she has played a variety of characters in more than 100 Teleserials and more than 100 Kannada films. She has received several awards, including the Cine Artist Award and Mrs. Karnataka (Cine). She has received praise from several cultural organizations, groups, and communities for her tireless efforts in Kannada theatre, television, and movie.  

She has toured the united States, Australia, and other Arab nations to perform Kannada plays, and she currently resides in Bengaluru.

Bidari Siddappa Mayappa

 Siddappa Mayappa Bidari, who was born in Bilagi and comes from a family of shepherds, grazed sheep and goats in the adjacent hills and agricultural areas until he was thirty years old.

During those days, People relied only on the neighboring plants and herbal healers because it was quite difficult to find doctors. It was inevitable that Siddappa would perfect the technique of healing human and animal ailments by using herbs. 

By chance, Siddappa met a saint who taught him the skill of treating illnesses and ailments. He gradually honed the technique of treating and healing humans and cattle. 

The counselling days were on Sunday and Thursday (except Amavasya), and the location was next to a bus stop and under a large neem tree. 

There used to be a tremendous throng of cattle due to his undistracted focus on diagnosing the illnesses and sick calves. He would describe the problem and recommend plants, medication components, and application methods. He used to pierce the tongue to extract impure blood and cut holes in the feet of livestock to remove pus. He used to utilize his aid in locating the plants from various locations because the livestock owners and patients were unaware of the plants.  As it has been seen, He also used to treat paralysis by putting marks on the body by red hot iron needles. Similar to acupuncture,

He never requested or accepted payment in exchange for his services. People used to hold him in the high respect because of his charitable work without expecting anything in return.  He was known as Bidari Siddapa or Siddanna by Bilgi people.

Madhvaraj Umarji

On November 7, 1914, in Bilagi, Madhvaraj Umarji was born to Shree Govindacharya and Smt. Bheemabai. They had a natural right to worship and sing devotional songs since they were a traditional, God-fearing family. Since Madhvaraj was the youngest, he was very close to his mother and was always humming religious tunes that his mother had taught him. 

Tammanna Bhat, a teacher and the father of the renowned author Krishnmoorty Puranik, gave a shape to the devotional songs of Madhvaraj.

When he was in school, Madhvaraj became more interested in music and singing than completing exams. In Salotagi, the play "shamantakhopakyana," in which Madhvaraj played the lead role, was performed. Because of this mindset, he had a very tough time passing his SSLC in Bilagi in 1933. He maintained farming instead of becoming a teacher and associated with Radhabai and Mansur Mahalinamani, two other artists in Bilagi. He relocated to Hubballi and followed Shri Gundachar Mannur's instructions.

The director of the Indian Art Music School, Shree Mahaveer Kasturi, recognised Madhvaraj and extended an invitation to join his institution. On July 19, 1935, Madvaraj joined as well. Because of his focus, he was skilled in playing the flute, harmonium, tabala, jalataranga, and other instruments, in addition to singing. He had practice from 7 to 10 am and singing from 5 to 10 evening. The remaining time was spent by teaching students.

On December 27, 1935, a musical conference was planned for Mumbai's Sir Kasaji Jahangeer Hall, where he was employed as a secretary. His musical programme including the flute was expanded to include Pune, Sollapur, Vijayapura, Gadag, Bengaluru, Mysore, Chennai, etc. In 1936, he went back to Bilagi and joined Amirbai and Goharjan, two more enormous personalities.

He performed a hero role for the Bagyodaya Company in 1937, and the owner gave him the honour of becoming "Natasamrat." His proficiency earned him the title of "Shreshta Nata of Karnataka" when he joined the Dattatreya Sangeeta Naataka Mandali. "Jaya Karnataka Natya Sangha" is what he joined. In addition to this, he also performed in Kandagal Hanamatraya's "Chitrangada, Raktaratri, Akshayanjura, Kuarukshetra, etc." He has performed in the plays Basaveshwar and Kanakadas. He used to play the part and bring the character to life. He worked with the Udupi-based Shastra Drama Company and the Garuda Sadashivaraya Drama Company from Gadag. He appeared in the Kannada films Basaveshwar and Kanakadas, however the movies have not been released because of financial issues.

Madhvaraj was the First Kannadiga to perform/sang for Columbia Recording Company. They recorded six songs for his plays Renuka, Akkamahadevi, and Basaveshwar. He wanted to appear in English and Hindi movies. But he passed away at a young age on April 28, 1952, in Hanagal.

Diwakar Ranganath Ramchandra

Ranganath Ramchandra Diwakar was born on September 30, 1894, in Bilagi. He received his education at Belgaum and Hubli, graduated from Fergusson College in Poona in 1916, received his M.A. in 1918, and then accepted a position as a professor of English at Rajaram College in Kolhapur.

He graduated from law school in 1921, which gave him the confidence to start participating in public life by joining the Non-Cooperation Movement. 

In 1923, he founded the weekly publication "Karmaveera," rose to the position of editor of the Kannada monthly magazine "Kasturi," and served as editor of the English weekly "Nava Shakti." From 1926 to 1929, he served as the Karnataka Provincial Congress Committee's secretary before taking over as president until 1934.

In 1930, he took part in the movement for salt(Uppina Satyagraha). He assumed control of the daily news publication "Samyukta Karnataka" in 1935.

In 1942, his involvement in the "Quit India" campaign was particularly important. He joined the Congress Constitution Committee in 1945 and was appointed as secretary of the Karnataka Province Congress Parliamentary Board. In 1946, he was chosen to represent Bombay Province in the Constituent Assembly. 

And in the year 1948, he became one of the Indian Parlimentary observers to the 37^th session of the Inter Parliamentary Union Conference in Rome. He was the Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting in the Nehru cabinet from 1 April 1949 to 15 April 1952. Diwakar was elected as member of the Rajya Sabha from Bombay State on 3 April 1952 but resigned on 13 June 1952, within a few months when was appointed as the Governor of Bihar and served till 1957.

He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1962 and remained there till 1968.  After 1968, he distanced himself from politics and wrote several books in English, Kannada, Sanskrit and Hindi.  His books on the lives of Sri Aurobindo, Paramahamsa, Sri Ramakrishna and Bhagawan Buddha in this series have become extremely popular.  The first one was translated in Hindi, Marathi, Kannada and Bengali.

R. R. Diwakar was a nationalist, philosopher, and scholar, to put it briefly. His writings in Kannada and English are reflections of his understanding of yoga, culture, and philosophy. He served as s the President of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee  also. 

At his death on 15 January 1990, he was the last surviving member of the first Nehru cabinet. 

Basappa Bagali

Basappa Siddappa Bagali born on April 27, 1916 in Bilagi, Bagalkot district, completed his primary school in Bilagi and joined Govt. high school in Vijayapur.

He skipped the inter examination due to financial issues. Since he was not able to continue his studies, he got frustrated and left to Mumbai. He met Barrister Sawarkar there, listened to his counsel, and decided to join the British Indian Army rather than fight for independence. The harassment by British to Indian persons was intolerable. However  Basappa was detained and sent to Singapore Jail during the Second World War.

The negotiations between Subhash Chandra Bose and the Tojo-led Japanese government produced fruitful results, and all the detainees were freed. He entered the Indian National Academy established by Subhash Chandra Bose and joined the front line and officers' cadre after completing his training because the miseries he endured under the Britishers inspired him to serve his country.

British people were shaken by the patriotism, passion, and spirit of achieving freedom, but this did not last long due to the British people's superior military technology and physical prowess. Basappa was thus detained, imprisoned in several locations, and subjected to unrelenting torture. Ultimately, he spent more than five years being held in a small town in Bangladesh.

Due to his prolonged disappearance, he was deemed deceased i.e. he was declared as dead (missing for long time). His release came in 1946. One day after India gained its freedom in 1947, he visited his village and ran into his relatives. In Wadi near Solapur, Basappa began working for the railway department as a station master.

He initiated the provision of basic amenities including drinking water, street lighting, and a road at the settlement of independence warriors in Vijayapur. He lived at Vijayapur for the last two decades of his life. He was spiritual, lost everything but never lost hope to live. Before he passed away, Basappa instructed his grandson, "Give happiness to everyone, serve everyone, that should be your life's motto."