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Sandalwood films & language of Kannada

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Prashanth G Malur Author Info: | Apple Certified Trainer | Sr. Lecturer: Dept. of Media & Entertainment | Manipal University, Bangalore Campus | _______________________________________________________________________________________

Sandalwood: interlink of Kannada films to language and audience Sandalwood is precious in its nature and the value worth more than its fragrance but yet it s not with a question much more than a million dollar when it represents the Kannada film industry the entertainment hub of Karnataka. The industry recognised as Sandalwood, reflects the inspired version when its competitors were tagged with Bolly, Tolly, Kolly and finally to the origin Hollywood. And much before all these were named, each industry was referred by its language. My write up here throws a glance of its early start, the growth, the milestones and the brief introduction of the lead film fraternity in all the eras till date.
The early days. . . . .

The first ever talkie film in Kannada was SATI SULOCHANA in 1934 after the emergence of the first South Indian film KALIDASA in 1931. Though BHAKTA DRUVA followed as the second film then gave a start to form an industry of its own in Karnataka, it made tuff (tough) to those who aspired to make films with the technical assistance rather to its creativity and was totally depended on the studios at Madras, now called as Chennai. It found its time harder to get the bookings of studios at the other places for its sound recording and post production work and most of the times for the shooting floors required for the filming of scenes.

The industry at 40s to 50s

The film makers BR Pantalu, HLN Simha, Gubbi Veeranna discovered those artists who then became as the icons of the Kannada film industry in their respective roles. Mutturaju making his debut as hero in the movie Bedara Kannappa and then was popularly known by the iconic name Dr. Rajkumar. The movie also saw the evergreen comedian Narasimha Raju and GV Iyer in the direction category. Their formation generated more movies in the early years which were the foundation of the industry with more film producers and financiers coming in and new artists were also roped in to the Industry. When in the mid forties Ku Ra Seetaraama Shastry popularly known as KuRaSi emerged as actor, lyricist, playwright and as well as the best film director giving sensational hits like Anna Thangi, Rani Honnamma, and Mana Mechida Madadi. He introduced several artists to the Kannada cinema starting from B. Saroja Devi (Mahakavi Kalidasa) and including Shivaram (Beretha Jeeva) and Shakthi Prasad to the film industry. Lyrics penned by KuRaSi Viz., Ramana Avatara (Bhu Kailasa, Rajkumar), Dhooradinda Bandhantha Sundaranga Jaana (Samshaya Phala), Binkada Singari (Kanya Ratna), Sathyameva Jayathe (Kalpavruksha) among others. Even to this day, no one has challenged his dialog writing style of Anna Thangi of Halli Kannada. KuRaSi was the first Kannada film personality who went abroad to direct two films in the Malaya language in Singapore during the early 1950s and won an international award for his direction for the film Iman in Malaya (now Malaysia).
The incline at 60s

Few of the best directors who set the trend of parallel cinemas in those years were BV Karanth, Dr. Girish Karnad, Girish Kasaravalli, MS Sathyu were. Girish Kasaravalli won the National award for his first film Ghatashradda a novel by the Jnanapeeth awardee Dr. U R Ananth Murthy. Prema Karanth's Phaniyamma, Vamshavruksha, Kadu Kudure, Hamsageethe, Accident, Akramana, Mooru Dhaarigalu, Tabarana Kathe, Bannadha Vesha, Akramana, Mooru Dhaarigalu , Tabarana Kathe , Bannadha Vesha , Mane, Kraurya were the others which played the film game. Girish Karnad's Kaadu was greatly appreciated, while Ondanondu Kaladalli received international acclaim introducing Shankar Nag as artist. M.S.Sathyu's Kanneshwara Rama , Chithegu Chinthe, Pattabhi Rama Reddy's Samskara were few of the movies of 60 s.
The boom of 70s

1970 s was the era which cherished the business and market. Puttanna Kanagal, is known as the Chitra Brahma of the Kannada film industry. Puttanna s films acclaimed a lot more appreciation in the technique of film making by the audience and also for his films which were based on women issues and triggered the concern of women and society. Bellimoda, Gejje Pooje, Sharapanjara, Sakshatkara, Nagara Havu bought new style of film making which acted as a bridge between commercial and parallel cinema.

Artists like Shrinath, Chandrashekar, Jai Jagadish, Ramakrishna, Kokila Mohan were those who came to the limelight while heroines like Aarathi, Kalpana, Jayanthi, Manjula, Lakshmi, Padma Vaasanthi, Geetha, Madhavi, Saritha, Jayamala were those who donned with the legends. The Government then granted the industry with Kantheerava studios which was located as the suburb in the then Bangalore Map. The industry started blossoming when it was only dependent on the post production works and lately developed for the sound recording & dubbing studio when the aspiring film maker & actor Shankar Nag (renowned world wide as the maker of Malgudi days, which acclaimed the first fiction series of television program) started his Sanketh Studios in Bangalore.
Era of the legends

The era of Dr. Rajkumar gave phenomenal and remarkable hits in the history of Kannada film industry. Gandhi Nagara, Ranadheera Kantheerava, Baktha Kumbara, Sri Krishnadevaraya, Bhakta Prahallada, Shrinivas Kalyana, Kavirathna Kalidasa, Mayor Muttanna, Operation Diamond Rocket, Gandhadagudi, Bangaarada Manushya, Kasturi Nivaasa, Daari Thappida Maga, Mayura, Premada Kaanike, Naa Ninna Marayalaare, Naa Ninna Bidalaare, Babruvahana, Jeevana Chaitra, Odahuttidavaru, Aakasmika and finally Shabdhavedhi along with many more of 205 films made huge success, creating the milestones for the growth of the industry. Dr. Raj was closely associated with veteran comedians Narasimha Raju, Balakrishna (popularly known as Balanna) and also with one of the versatile actor-director & producer Dwarakeesh. Raj was associated with Vishnuvardhan, Ambareesh, Shankar Nag, and Ananth Nag. Associating with writer & lyricist Chi. Udayashankar and directors like Dorai Bhagavan, Bhargava, Siddalingaiah and many more Dr. Raj became the super star of Kannada film industry in 70 s giving the never expected hits like Bangarada Manushya which created history by continuous screening of two years. The arrival of another legend Vishnuvardhan, formerly named as Sampath Kumar was introduced by Puttanna Kanagal in the movie Nagarahaavu. He was the one to put Kannada film industry in to the context and enigmatic performance which equaled Rajkumar in the coming days. Films like Bhootaiyyana Maga Aiyyu, Suprabhata, Sose Tanda Sowbhagya, Bandhana, Kalla Kulla, Singapore Nalli Raja Kulla, Naa Bareda Kaadambari, Karna, Malaya Maarutha, Hrudaya Geete, Jaya Simha, Raayaru Bandaru Maavana Manege, Lion Jagapathi Rao, Muttina Haara, Jana Nayaka, Kotigobba, Veerappa Nayaka, Simhadriya Simha, Habba, Yajamaana, Diggajaru, Aaptamitra, Bellary Naga and finally the last Aaptha Rakshaka were those which can be remembered of all the 200 films. Ananth Nag, Ambareesh, Prabhakar, Lokesh, Ashok, Shrinath, M P Shankar, Sunder Krishna Urs, Vajramuni, Toogudeepa Shrinivas, Doddanna and Mukhya Mantri Chandru were the artists whose performance dominated in various characters and not being of one image.

The established 80s & 90s

Though the industry saw its own emergence and stability till the late 90 s with great films and film directors like Rajendra Singh Babu, D Rajendra Babu, Kashinath, Nagathihalli Chandrashekar, Nagabharana, S. Narayan, Sunil Kumar Desai, and Upendra with many others came in with the loss of the evergreen director Shankar Nag. Shivaraj Kumar, Raghavendra Rajkumar, Ramkumar, Ramesh Aravind, Vinod Raj, Shashi Kumar, Jaggesh and many more artists from the last two decades are in the lead roles. The industry has covered up with many kind of interventions of people and newcomers who fall sick to grab the attention of films, except for a few here and there from the last decade.
The crazy star

In the 80 s it was the time when the industry saw a star named Ravi Chandran. Though being an actor, his debut direction & production film Prema Loka, set the trend in the film making process technically and the musical hit which reaped huge success introducing Hamsa Lekha as music director. Ravi and Hamsa Lekha made the best pair ever in the business of Kannada films. Raamachari, Annaiya, Srirama Chandra, Gadibidi Ganda, Yare Neenu Chelluve, Chelluva, Ugadi, Nanu Nanna Hendthiru and many more films which have been a remake made the audience feel the fresh in the films and commercially made well. Shanthi Kranthi and Yekangi were the two films along with others viz., Aham Premasmi, Hatavaadi has made Ravi Chandran as the film maker who has made the most best technical adopted films with to that of the story. His craze for films has bought him the title as Crazy Star . Chaitrada premanjali, Anta, Shh, Om, Jeevana Chaitra, Aakasmika, A, Upendra, Nishkarsha, Habba, Jogi, Deadly soma, Nenapirali, Mungaaru male, Aptamitra, Gaalipata, Maleyali Jotheyali, Aaptha rakshaka, Deadly 2 are the other few which can be remembered as the hits of the last 20 years.
The show mans of 20K

The industry today has many new comers viz., Punith, Ganesh, Aditya, Darshan, Sudeep, Vijay, Vijay Raghavendra, Murali, Yogish, Komal, Diganth with good directors like Mahesh Babu, Prakash, Ravi Shrivatsa, Yogaraj Bhat, Suri, Shashank, BN Vijay Kumar, Guru Prasad, PN Sathya, Puri Jaganath, Dinesh Babu, KV Raju, Om Prakash Rao are a few to be remembered among many of the others, who are on par to compete with their roles of film making by their good films which have made the Kannada industry, stable with a hope of success. Nevertheless now with the studios, equipments, technicians, technology adaptability and all the infrastructure of all kinds in Bangalore, films still need to be processed in any one of the studios in Chennai for some or the other post production works due to many factors.
The ongoing scene

Taking a look from the early days of the Kannada film industry, one can find a lot of changes happening in the films produced due to various reasons. It was one of the times when Kannada was dominated by the other South Indian films and Hindi films which gave a cake walk to all others.

Industry had its audience given with the flavor of different choices and giving many the star values and the director ship. Kannada films could be the only industry with the diversification of the language in the state with Konkani, Tulu, and Kodava off late.
The X factor

The 90 s in over all saw the boom by the development of software industry and many more people coming in to Bangalore across the globe for education and job which has made them never turn back to their natives and Bangaloreans making way to settle their career in other states & countries has lost the flavored audience of Kannada. People coming from other places never bothered to learn the language which is apparently not in any of the other states and Bangalore became a hub of people for all the outsiders who have made the existence of non Kannada population, who does not understand the language and hence does not watch Kannada films.
Quality talks

There are talks about the quality of the films which could not be on par with any of the other Indian films, which is true to an extent but not to be agreed as solely. But it has many reasons which are not in the control of the industry. There are quite a lot of films which have caught up the audience making its mark either with profits or the box office credit and both. In any of the analysis one has to remember the facts of factors viz., audience and nativity primarily and to the other factors viz., creative, production and execution aspects secondarily. Kannada may strive hard in all the secondary actions but it s one of the primary action has no support to the extent of the population in Bangalore. One question to our own self is that, how many of the people irrespective of the caste, creed, race & the language who is also a movie audience in Bangalore, know the local and native language Kannada to the extent of watching and understanding the movie & the narrative dialogues? Neither can all the movies could be run with the subtitles in English in the theatre screening and having given the option for few of the award winning commercial & non commercial films on CD s / DVD s. If so then, how many of the audience in Bangalore could buy and watch with an interest of appreciation? This could also be one of the reason that quite a good movies which are made are remake and the core Kannada movie audience have supported the team for the effort carried in executing the movie. But the movie audience in Bangalore is rather with mixture of all native s and any remake movie has the possibility of having been viewed in any of the other language made originally.
Budget, Technology & Market

One also needs to think about the budget which has to finally be recovered by the movie audience. The market of Kannada industry is falling gradually losing its audience, not because of the making of the film but rather due to the simple language of communicating to the audience in simple manners.

Films are made here are over 30 crore in the recent days while the least is at 60 to 80 lakhs. Mungaaru Male the 1.5 cr budget have reaped 36 cr and Yeddelu Manjunatha with a budget of 65 lakhs recovered 2.5 cr (all amounts are approx. as per industry sources) were the huge success. Mungaaru Male created the careers of artists & technicians could be the only film which I have personally heard of being watched by the non Kannada audience s. The one strong reason could be the catchy & melody tunes which made people to hum even without the lyrics and getting on to the theatre to watch the movie. The simple narration was made so effective & in simple communicating the scene to any of the audience. But all movies cannot be the same. It is after all the creative medium. The markets in all the seven sectors of Kannada film distribution all over Karnataka is gradually been captured by those who have no idea to pronounce & understand the language. When the markets are not populated only of the core Kannada movie audience, but much more by all other language is all the one reason that the person locally resided has no knowledge of the native/ local language Kannada. One has to try to learn the language irrespective of the duration of their stay. I personally feel, no matter with the budget, technology, star values and any of the secondary factors and not to forget the promotion & advertising the Kannada movie but one has to ensure that the promotion of the language is more important with every one being responsible of teaching & learning the language. But when thought as who has to be belled for the promotion, I don t feel it s only the Information of Broadcasting, Dept. of Kannada & Culture of any association formed by anybody. It is the responsibility of each individual with a reciprocate theory of teaching & learning.
Question worth more than a million dollar

How many of the core Kannadiga s have made a try to create interest & teach the language to the movie audience who does not understand the language. And how many of these people have made their mind to try to learn & gain the knowledge about the language? When there is a giver, there need to be a taker, as in buyer & seller and as such here the teacher & the gainer in acquiring the knowledge. Both needs to make an effort individually while one create the interest & the other sustaining it by its usage. Unless the root problem like this is solved I don t believe that only Kannada movies will create interest & attract the non Kannada movie audience to watch a Kannada movie. Hence having the most audience who does not know the language, one has to tackle this situation and overcome getting not only the core Kannada movie buffs but also those of all the other native s walking to the theatre and generating success widening the markets.
The action & support

All those who are familiar with the lead actress Pooja Gandhi debut of Mungaaru Male and Priyanka Upendra (W/o Upendra) must make an appreciation for their effort of learning the language and using them in their day to day activities and to the extent of dubbing for their own performances. But it s all the responsibility of an individual to widen the market.

Thanks and hats off to all those movie audience supporting the Kannada film industry as well as other movies irrespective of the language.
Before the sign off

The industry has seen its ups and downs. One should certainly not forget those artist & directors who made their debut in Kannada have made remarks in the national and international arena. Artists originated from Kannada films in their debuts and earlier days of career viz., Anil Kapoor, Prakash Raj, Murali, Rajanikanth, Arjun are a few to be named, while Mani Rathnam too made his direction debut in Kannada. With all these analysis, trends, milestones collected through various sources, I finally need to put an end proposing my perspective on the Kannada film industry & its markets. Hope my wish comes true, shall spread the fragrance of Sandalwood across the globe. But even today at this moment, one person I personally miss in the industry, for its development and making the industry s perspective with all things being different to my hopes is the one & only legend director Shankar Nag.