The first-ever volumes of Kannada crossword puzzles compiled by A.N. Prahlad Rao were launched on 14 February 2008. Three of the five Kannada crossword books are based on general knowledge, one on Kannada cinema, and another one for children. Poet, Padmasree K.S. Nissar Ahmed was present at the launch of the first-ever volumes of Kannada crossword puzzles compiled by A.N. Prahlad Rao. The poet said the love of solitude was missing among a lot of youngsters, who prefer to hang out at a noisy mall than solve a crossword puzzle in a quiet corner. The volumes, published by Vasanta Prakashana, was attended by Gandhian and writer Belagere Krishna Shastry, lexicographer G. Venkatasubbiah and jouranlist S.V. Jayasheela Rao, author and critiv pro.C.N.Ramachandran.
A.N. Prahlada Rao have created 40,000 crosswords in the Kannada language for Kannada daily newspapers and periodicals with 10,00,000 clues. He is also a writer and poet. A.N. Prahlada Rao was born at Abbani in the Kolar district of Karnataka in India. He started his career as a journalist. He was the founder Editor of HONNUDI the first regional district daily publishing editorial every day. He joined the Information Department in 1983.
He started writing Kannada crosswords in 1984. A.N.Prahlada Rao is probably the only man in the country to possess the unique achievement of having created more than 40,000 crosswords in a regional language—Kannada. And the range of his subjects vary from one end of the spectrum to the other -- cinema, science, crime, mythology, women and child issues, culinary, and of course, the general crossword. Two major daily news papers i.e. Vijaya Karnataka and Samyukta Karnataka and mangala aragini weeklies and balamangala fortnightly carrying his crosswords daily in addition to some of the major periodicals publishing in Kannada language. Every day A. N. Prahlada Rao creates 3 crosswords. His crosswords also published in Kannadaprabha, Aragini, Mangala, Balamangala, Chitra, Priyanka, Karmaveera, Tharanga, Vijayachitra, Vanita, Janapada, Vignanasangati, Policenews, Policefile, Sanchu, Udayaraga, Dehalivarte, Rangavalli, Hotel Patrike, Cheluve, Chitratara, Kandayavarte, Vydyaloka, Kannadamma, Udayakala and some more magazines.