Did you know that Puttanna Kanagal worked as a garage cleaner and a bus driver before taking up direction? Or that Infosys Narayana Murthy was imprisoned for a few days in then East Germany for treason? Or that Dharmasthala Dharmadhikari Veerendra Hegde was a speed buff, cruising along Bangalore roads during college?

Well, television audience will be treated to all this and more in Biography, Ondu Jeevana Gaathe this Sunday at 11am on Zee Kannada. Conceived and directed by Hemant Hegde, this series promises a never-before-seen version of the lives of legends including Puttanna, Narayana Murthy, Kalpana, Jayanti, Master Hirannaiah, Kuvempu, Dr Shivaram Karant, Gubbi Veeranna, Sangliana and hold your breath, H D Deve Gowda! And yes, it will not be a only-paeans-story but a hard hitting documentary as well, warts included.

Hemant credits the concept to Nat Geo Channel’s Biographies that bring the lives of several well known celebrities and personalities all over the world in a what-you-see-is- what-you-get format.

Viewers will still be interested to know about Puttanna-Arti-Kalpana. And we present controversies surrounding the personalities as they are. The series is not a glorification of these people, says Hegde. Each story will be told in 2-3 episodes with actors enacting key characters.

“We have chosen those artists who closely resemble the personality in question. Each episode is divided into three segments -scenes of actual events, interviews and memoirs,” Hegde says.

Actors include Anantvelu, Poornachandra Tejaswi, Vidya Venkatram, Lakshmi, Nanjunda and Archana.
A lot of research by Vinayak Bhat Taddalase has gone into the making of this series produced by Hemant Hegde and Maverick Productions that is also producing Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa for Zee. 

Deepavali treat

Zee Kannada is also bringing the popular comedy Satyavan Savitri to viewers as a special Deepavali treat this Saturday. Satyavan Savitri, directed by actor Ramesh and featuring Daisy Bopanna, Jennifer Kothwal, Mohan, Aniruddh and Komal is an out and out comedy, ‘inspired’ by French play Fleur de Cactus.

The movie is all about the protagonist Dr Sathya's raas leelas with the ladies and how he tells one lie after another just to hide the previous one.
The movie will be telecast at 12.30 pm.