Kannada cinema, also known as Sandalwood or Chandanavana, is an Indian film industry of Kannada-language motion pictures. It is based in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. The 1934 film Sati Sulochana directed by Y. V. Rao was the first talkie film in the Kannada language. It was also the first film starring Subbaiah Naidu and Tripuramba, and was the first motion picture screened in the erstwhile Mysore Kingdom. The film was produced by Chamanlal Doongaji, who in 1932 founded South India Movietone in Bangalore.
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Mysore Shrinivas Sathyu is a leading film director, stage designer and art director from India. He is best known for his directorial Garm Hava (1973), which was based on the partition of India. He was awarded Padma Shri in 1975.
Babukodi Venkataramana Karanth was a film and theatre personality from India. Throughout his life he was director, actor and musician of modern Indian theatre both in Kannada as well as Hindi, and one of the pioneers of Kannada and Hindi new wave cinema. He was born in Dakshina Kannada.
Girish Kasaravalli is an Indian film director, in the Kannada cinema, and one of the pioneers of the Parallel Cinema. Known internationally for his works, Kasaravalli has garnered fourteen National Film Awards, including four Best Feature Films; Ghatashraddha (1977), Tabarana Kathe (1986), Thaayi Saheba (1997) and Dweepa (2002). In 2011, he was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award by Government of India.
Irruppam Veedu Sasidaran, better known as I. V. Sasi, was an Indian film director who made over 110 films predominantly in Malayalam, in addition to Tamil and Hindi languages. In 2015, he was awarded the J. C. Daniel Award, the highest award in Malayalam cinema. Often described as a pathbreaker, Sasi made his mark during Malayalam cinema’s transformative period from the 1970s to 1990s.
Bangalore Saroja Devi is an Indian actress who has acted in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi movies. She acted in around 200 films in over six decades. She is known by the epithets "Abhinaya Saraswathi" in Kannada and "Kannadathu Paingili" in Tamil.
Ganapathi Venkataramana Iyer was a well-known Indian film director and actor. He was nicknamed "Kannada Bheeshma", and was the only person who made films in Sanskrit. His film Adi Shankaracharya (1983) won four National Film Award, including Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Audiography. His films were well known for their spiritual themes. He was born in 1917 in Nanjanagud in Mysore district of Karnataka state in South India. His most critically acclaimed films were Bhagavad Gita (1993), which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film and was nominated for Best Film at the Bogotá Film Festival and Swami Vivekananda (1998), for which Mithun Chakraborty won the national award for Best Supporting Actor.
Mahalakshmi, known professionally as Lakshmi, is an Indian actress known for her works primarily in the southern film industry, along with some Hindi films. She made her film debut through a Tamil film Sri Valli in 1961. Her debut as an actress happened with the Tamil film Jeevanaamsam in 1968. In the same year, she also debuted in Kannada and Telugu films with Goa Dalli CID 999 and Bandhavyalu, respectively. In 1974, Her debut Malayalam film, Chattakari went on to become a blockbuster throughout India. Her performance in Mithunam (2012) is regarded as one of the "100 Greatest Performances of the Decade" by Film Companion.
Kavitha Lankesh is an Indian film director, screenwriter and a lyricist known for her work in Kannada cinema industry. She began as a documentary film-maker before directing her first feature film, Deveeri (1999), which went on to win international, national and state awards. She is considered to be one of the renowned film-makers of Kannada cinema. She has directed and produced more than fifty documentaries/informational films and more than forty corporate films. Some of the films Kavitha directed have won awards and accolades from critics.
Ghatashraddha is a 1977 Indian Kannada language film directed by Girish Kasaravalli starring Meena Kuttappa, Narayana Bhat and Ajith Kumar in lead roles. It is based on a novella by eminent Kannada writer U. R. Ananthamurthy. The film was Girish Kasaravalli's first feature film as a director, and marked not only the arrival of a promising new filmmaker but also that of Kannada cinema in the India's 'New Cinema' horizon.
Emani Sankara Sastry, was a renowned Veena player of Carnatic music.
Singeetam Srinivasa Rao is an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter, composer, singer, lyricist and actor, known for his works in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Hindi films, across multiple genres. The nonagenarian is widely regarded as one of the versatile directors of India. He is credited with having revolutionised the South Indian cinema with experimental films. He has garnered two National Film Awards, five state Nandi Awards, three Filmfare Awards South, and three Karnataka State Film Awards.
Pallavi Joshi is an Indian actress, writer, and film producer who works primarily in Hindi films and television. In a career spanning across films and television, Joshi is the recipient of such accolades as two National Film Awards, and a nomination for the Filmfare Awards.
B. Lenin born as Bhimsingh Lenin is an Indian film editor, writer and director who works in Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi films. The son of Tamil film maker A. Bhimsingh, Lenin entered the film industry as an assistant editor and went on to work in numerous projects before making his debut as an independent editor with Mahendran's Uthiripookkal (1979). In the mid 1980s, Lenin started jointly working with his long-time assistant V. T. Vijayan and the duo has so far edited over a hundred films in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi films, apart from an English film, Eli My Friend.
Seetharamayya Gari Manavaralu is a 1991 Indian Telugu-language drama film directed by Kranthi Kumar, and produced by V. Doraswamy Raju under the VMC Productions banner. The film stars Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Rohini Hattangadi, and Meena with the music composed by M. M. Keeravani. Based on the novel Navvina Kanneelle by Manasa, the plot follows Seetha (Meena) who arrives from the US to visit her grandparents, Seetharamayya (Rao) and Janakamma (Hattangadi) who are uninformed of her parents' accidental death.
The 25th National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 1977. Ceremony took place on 27 April 1978.
J. Chandulal Jain was a popular Kannada film director and Producer of almost 40 films, notably, Thaaye Devaru, Bhootayyana Maga Ayyu, Tabbaliyu Neenade Magane, Bhakta Siriyala, and many more. He also produced movies in Hindi such as Godhuli and Pyaar Karke Dekho. His film Idu Saadhya was shot in just 48 hours.
Sookha is a 1983 Hindi drama film directed by M. S. Sathyu, starring Anant Nag, C. R. Simha, Lovelin Madhu and Pankaj Dheer. Based on the Kannada novel Bara by eminent writer U. R. Ananthamurthy, the story deals with the politics of famine in Karnataka. An idealistic officer eventually succumbs to bureaucratic apathy - famine relief arrives, but too late.
