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 among 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. In 2008, a poll conducted by CNN-IBN listed Vishnuvardhan as the most popular star in the Kannada film industry.
Gangaraju, professionally known as Hamsalekha, is an Indian film composer and songwriter who works in South Indian cinema, predominantly in the Kannada film industry since the late 1980s. He is also a screenplay writer, dialogue writer, instrumentalist and conductor, having composed and written over 500 albums.
The Filmfare Awards South are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema, Malayalam cinema and Kannada cinema. They are presented by Filmfare magazine of The Times Group. When it was introduced in 1954, the Filmfare Awards initially only recognized achievements in the Hindi cinema. In 1964 the awards were extended to Telugu, Tamil, Bengali and Marathi languages. Malayalam cinema was included in the awards in 1967 and Kannada cinema followed in 1970.
Sudeep Sanjeev, also known as Sudeepa or Kichcha Sudeep, is an Indian actor, director, producer, screenwriter, television presenter and singer, who primarily works in Kannada films. He has also worked in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films. He is one of the highest paid actors of Kannada Cinema and is one of the first Kannada actors to be listed in the Forbes list of top 100 celebrities of India since 2013. He has received several awards including four Filmfare Awards South, one Karnataka State Film Award and one Nandi Award.
Gurukiran Shetty, known mononymously as Gurukiran, is an Indian music director of the Kannada film industry in India. He started his career as a music director of the Kannada movie A, directed and acted by Upendra. His music for his next movie Upendra further consolidated his position in Kannada movie industry. He is a native of Mangalore and hails from Bunt Family. His mother tongue is Tulu. He has also acted in several movies in supporting character roles and also sung several songs and also composed in Tamil, Telugu and Tulu movies.
Yogaraj Bhat is an Indian film-maker, director, screenwriter, lyricist and producer who primarily works in Kannada cinema. He is most known for the 2006 film Mungaru Male. The film recorded the highest box-office collections in the history of Kannada cinema at the time of its release and the longest running film at a multiplex.
Jayant Kaikini is a poet, short story writer, playwright, columnist in Kannada and a lyricist in Kannada cinema. He has so far published six anthologies of short stories, four books of poetry, three plays and a collection of essays. He is valued as one of the best writers in Kannada literature and has revolutionized the field by giving it a fresh new perspective. He has bagged many notable awards like 'Karnataka Sahitya Academy' award, Kusumagraj Award, Katha Award, DSC Prize for South Asian Literature amidst others. Kaikini is regarded as one of the most significant writers in Kannada today. Kaikini has been conferred the honorary doctorate from Tumkur University.
Shashank is an Indian film director, screenwriter and lyricist who works in Kannada cinema. He made his debut as a director with the 2007 film Sixer. His second directorial Moggina Manasu (2008) received critical acclaim for its screenplay and its coming-of-age theme. He went on to direct other successful films in the romance genre such as Krishnan Love Story (2010), Bachchan (2013), Krishna-Leela (2015), Mungaaru Male 2 (2016) and Love 360 (2022) He is also credited to have introduced actors Yash, Radhika Pandit, Prajwal Devraj and Neha Shetty who went on to become successful actors in Kannada cinema.
Anuradha Bhat is an Indian playback singer who predominantly works in Kannada language films. She has sung over 100 songs for feature films and also sung in various private musical albums.
Nandhi is a 2002 Kannada-language action-drama film directed by D. Rajendra Babu featuring Sudeep, Sindhu Menon and Radhika Chaudhari in the lead roles. The film features background score and soundtrack composed by Gurukiran and lyrics by Kaviraj and V. Nagendra Prasad. The film released on 27 December 2002.
Pavan Wadeyar is an Indian film director, screenwriter, lyricist, actor and producer best known for his work in Kannada cinema. He is known for writing and directing Govindaya Namaha (2012), for which he won the SIIMA award for the Best Debut Director. Being Producer, His Film Dollu won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film In Kannada 2022.
N.S.Rajkumar is a South Indian film producer and distributor. He is mostly known for his regional Kannada language films, namely Myna and Mythri.
Muddu Manase is a 2015 Indian Kannada romance drama film directed by Ananth Shain. It stars Aru Gowda, Nithya Ram and Aishwarya Nag in lead roles, the former two of whom made their debuts with the film. Achyuth Kumar, Padmaja Rao and Padmini Prakash feature in supporting roles. The film tells the story of a love triangle around Suresh (Gowda), and how he goes about dealing with his old lover as he falls in love with another girl in different circumstances and time. The title of the film which translates to "sweet mind", was taken from a track of the 2002 Kannada film Majestic.
Anup Bhandari is an Indian film director, composer and lyricist who works primarily in Kannada cinema. He made his directorial début with the mystery thriller film Rangitaranga, featuring his brother Nirup Bhandari, in 2015.
Hemanth Subramanya known by his stage name as Hemanth, is a playback singer in Kannada cinema.
Doddarangegowda is an Indian poet and lyricist working in Kannada cinema. He is a retired professor of Kannada and has published a number of anthologies in Kannada. He has released several audio cassettes and CDs of his poems. Some of his noteworthy songs are Tera Yeri Ambaradaage and Notadaage Nageya Meeti of Parasangada Gendethimma, Nammoora Mandara Hoove of Aalemane, Sri Rama Bandavne of Paduvaaralli Pandavaru. He was also a Bharatiya Janata Party MLC. In 2018, he was awarded with the civilian award Padma Shri.
Santhosh Ananddram is a lyricist, screenwriter, director who works in Kannada cinema. His debut films was Mr. and Mrs. Ramachari in 2014. He has directed Raajakumara starring Puneeth Rajkumar in Raajakumara and Yuvarathnaa. Raajakumara was a blockbuster in Kannada cinema.
Mukunda Murari is a 2016 Indian Kannada-language devotional satirical comedy drama film directed by Nanda Kishore. The film stars Upendra in an atheist role and Sudeepa playing the role of Lord Krishna, teaming up for the first time. The film, a remake of Hindi film OMG - Oh My God! (2012), which in turn was based on a Gujarati stage play Kanji Virrudh Kanji, is produced by M.N. Kumar along with B. Jayashree Devi. The rest of the cast includes Nikita Thukral, Ishita Vyas, Kaavya Shah, P. Ravishankar, Avinash among others. The film has cinematography by Sudhakar S. Raj. The soundtrack and film score are composed by Arjun Janya.
Ravi Basrur is an Indian music composer, lyricist and director who mostly works in the Kannada film industry. He is known for his collaborations with director Prashanth Neel, with whom he debuted in Ugramm. He is also a film director, having directed the films Gargar Mandala and Girmit.
Shashank Sheshagiri is an Indian playback singer, live performer and composer who works in Kannada, Tulu, Telugu and Tamil film Industries.
