Sampath Kumar, known by his stage name Vishnuvardhan, was an Indian actor who worked predominantly in Kannada cinema besides also having sporadically appeared in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Malayalam language films. Vishnuvardhan has a prolific career spanning over four decades, during which he has acted in more than 220 films. A popular cultural icon of Karnataka, and holds the status of a matinée idol amongst the Kannada diaspora. He is popularly called as Sahasa Simha, Dada and The Angry Young Man of Kannada Cinema. Vishnuvardhan's contributions to Kannada cinema have been praised by his contemporaries in the Indian film industry. The Government of Karnataka honoured him with the Rajyothsava Prashasthi in 1990 and the Dr. Rajkumar Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007 for his contributions to Kannada cinema. He was called The Phoenix of Indian Cinema by CNN-News18. In 2008, a poll conducted by CNN-IBN listed Vishnuvardhan as the most popular star in the Kannada film industry.
Sistla Janaki is an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer from Andhra Pradesh. She is referred to respectfully as "Janaki Amma" and Nightingale of South India. She is one of the best-known playback singers in India. She is referred to as 'Gaana Kogile' in Karnataka and 'Isaikkuyil' in Tamil Nadu She has recorded over 65,000 songs in films, albums, TV and Radio which includes solos, duets, chorus and title tracks in 17 languages including Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Sanskrit, Odia, Tulu, Urdu, Punjabi, Badaga, Bengali, Konkani and also in foreign languages such as English, Japanese, German, and Sinhala. However the highest number of songs in her career were in Kannada followed by Malayalam. Starting in 1957 with the Tamil film Vidhiyin Vilayattu, her career has spanned over six decades.
Veeraswamy Ravichandran is an Indian actor, director, producer, music director, lyricist and editor in the Kannada Film Industry. He is the son of film producer N. Veeraswamy. As producer, Ravichandran continues to run his father's production house, Sri Eswari Productions. He is popularly known as "Crazy Star", a title fans have prefixed to his name.
Rajan–Nagendra were an Indian musical duo who were prominent composers of film music in Kannada and Telugu cinema from the late 1950s to the early 1990s. Rajan, along with his brother Nagendra, created a niche for themselves for nearly four decades. The duo scored music for about 375 films, over 200 of them in Kannada and the remainder in other languages like Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Tulu, Hindi and Sinhala. They composed innumerable hits, hundreds of melodious tunes in their career spanning four decades. They also hold the record for the longest active musical pair in the industry.
Sangeeta Katti Kulkarni, is an Indian playback singer, Hindustani classical vocalist, musician, music composer from Karnataka. She was awarded the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award in 2006 by the Government of Karnataka.
J Anoop Seelin is an Indian film music director and playback singer who works in the Kannada film industry. He has scored music for films including Gooli, Eddelu Manjunatha, I Am Sorry Mathe Banni Preethsona,Sidlingu, Parari, Madarangi, Naanu Avanalla...Avalu and Aatagara. He won the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Music Director for his Sidlingu work.
Nanditha is an Indian singer. Best known as a playback singer in the Kannada film industry, she sings in other languages such as Tamil and Telugu. Nanditha began her playback career from the film Habba (1998). Since then, she has won numerous awards including the Karnataka State Film Awards and Filmfare Awards South for her singing.
V. Harikrishna is an Indian film score and soundtrack composer, playback singer and film producer. He has mainly scored music for Kannada films. After his stint as a programmer and assistant musician, Harikrishna made his debut as an independent composer in actor Darshan's first production venture Jothe Jotheyali in 2006. Since then, he has been scoring for majority of Darshan's films besides working for many other leading production houses. He owns an audio company called "D-Beats" established in 2013 and produces music under his own company starting from the film Bulbul (2013). He has turned into a director with the 2019 Kannada film 'Yajamana'.
Shimoga Subbanna or Shivamogga Subbanna was an Indian Sugama Sangeetha(Light Music) playback singer in the Kannada language. He received a national award for singing for the song Kaadu Kudure Odi Banditta in the film Kaadu Kudure. He was the first Kannadiga to win National Award for playback singing. Apart from being an exemplary singer and musician, he was also an advocate and a notary public.
Sangeetha Sagara Ganayogi Panchakshara Gavai is a 1995 Indian Kannada-language biographical film, directed by Chindodi Bangaresh and produced by Chindodi Leela. Starring Lokesh in the titular role, the film also featured Girish Karnad and Vijay Raghavendra in other pivotal roles. The film is based on the life of Panchakshara Gawai, who was a blind singer from Karnataka who made a great difference to the life of many blind people in Indian society.
Chetan Krishna popularly known as Chetan Sosca is an Indian playback singer and composer who has performed the music for many Kannada films.
Shamitha Malnad is an Indian Dentist, voice artist, playback singer. She is known for her works in the Kannada film industry, as well as her works from Sugama Sangeetha and Devotional albums.
Halunda Tavaru is a 1994 Indian Kannada-language drama film starring Vishnuvardhan and Sithara. It was directed by D. Rajendra Babu and produced by Vizag Raju. The music and lyrics were written and composed by Hamsalekha. It was commercially successful and completed 25 weeks in many theaters. It is based on a novel of the same name by Krishnamoorthy Puranik.
Hoovu Hannu is a 1993 Indian Kannada-language drama film based on the novel by Triveni of the same name. The film stars Lakshmi, Rajesh Gundurao, Vyjayanthi and Baby Shamili. It was directed by Rajendra Singh Babu and produced by Vaibhava Lakshmi Productions. The music and lyrics were written and composed by Hamsalekha. The film was a musical hit and won many awards including the Karnataka State Film Awards and Filmfare Awards South. Veteran cinematographer V. K. Murthy worked in this film and won many accolades for his work.
V. Nagendra Prasad is a lyricist, composer and director who predominantly works for Kannada Cinema. He has penned more than 3000 songs, particularly for Kannada cinema.
Hemanth Subramanya known by his stage name as Hemanth, is a playback singer in Kannada cinema.
L. N. Shastri was an Indian playback singer and music composer who primarily worked in Kannada cinema. Starting his career as a playback singer in the film Ajagajantara (1991), Shastri went on to sing for more than 3000 songs. Upon his friends' suggestion, he renamed himself as Chaitanya and composed music for over 25 films starting with Kanasalu Neene Manasalu Neene (1998). However, he dropped the name due to the identity crisis for the film Bellary Naga (2009).
Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy or simply Bindhumalini is an Indian singer, composer, and graphic designer. She has received National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer (2018) and Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer - Kannada (2019) for her songs in the movie Nathicharami. She has composed and recorded songs for films and albums in Tamil, Hindi, and Kannada languages.
Ramesh Chandra is an Indian playback singer who works predominantly in the Kannada film industry. He is the recipient of Karnataka State Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer twice.
Latha, commonly known as Latha Hamsalekha, is an Indian playback singer in Kannada. She is the wife of composer Hamsalekha. For her song Aa Arunodaya Chanda in the movie Arunodaya, Latha was awarded the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer in 1999–2000.
