Breaking away from the usual

Fruitful year

There’s an air of satisfaction over how 2015 unfolded in Sandalwood. Actors, directors, producers and technicians say unanimously that it was a wonderful year for every segment of the Kannada film industry. The credit, they say, goes to the dawn of new talent and a certain infectious energy in every aspect of filmmaking. 

The year not only saw novel experiments like ‘RangiTaranga’, ‘Kendasampige’ and ‘First Rank Raju’ succeeding but also debutant directors and actors having it really good.

    They have not only received critical acclaim but also kept the cash registers ringing.

Two films that were noticed at the global level during the year were Master Kishan’s ‘Care Of Footpath 2’ and  ‘RangiTaranga’. The flood of fresh talent included Vinay Rajkumar, marking the entry of the third generation of thespian Rajkumar’s family.

Puneeth Rajkumar’s bid to reinvent himself with ‘Mythri’ in the company of Mohanlal and Atul Kulkarni saw moderate success but Puneeth scored a bigger success with his ‘Rana Vikrama’.

Films like ‘Raate’, ‘Endendigu’, ‘Krishna Leela’, ‘Ranna’, ‘Uppi 2’, ‘Aatagara’ and ‘RX Soori’ took the Kannada film industry to another level. These films were appreciated for the way they treated ordinary subjects with a different approach. Director Shashank feels the year 2015 has seen interesting films such as ‘RangiTaranga’ that did well to blend emotion and love into a neatly-woven horror genre. “A film like ‘Krishna Leela’ showcased a real life incident and portrayed it with a commercial touch. Although ‘First Rank Raju’ was a humourous film, it sent out a strong social message. It’s not only films with a big star cast that have done well but even those with fresh talent have raked in a good collection at the box office,” he says.

Another film that brought a lot of pride to the industry was ‘Naanu Avanalla Avalu’ which went on to win the National Film Award.

Among actors, it’s been a great year for Yash with the just released ‘Masterpiece’ breaking the box office records of his earlier movie ‘Mr and Mrs Ramachari’. ‘Mr Airavata’ and ‘Rathaavara’ ran to packed houses.

Another actor who turned producer this year is Sathish Ninasam with his film ‘Rocket.’ He is not only excited at the prospect of having entered a new area of filmmaking but feels that his hardwork has indeed paid off. “With ‘Rocket’, I have become thorough with every
aspect of filmmaking. I not only learnt but had to unlearn a lot of things as well. I’ve turned over a new leaf,” says Sathish.

The icing on the cake, that was 2015, was the encouragement that new ideas and
talent received. The impact that ‘First Rank Raju’ could make was credited to its new actors and offbeat content. Many in the Kannada film industry see this as the pointer to 2016 being a bigger year than its predecessor.

 Actor and director Ramesh Aravind observes that the audience trusting and accepting new talent is a good sign.

“New talent, be it actors or directors being recognised, is an encouraging trend. We have done well to break away from the set formulae and try out something new and exciting,” he says.

Director Yogaraj couldn’t agree more with Ramesh when he says, “We’ve seen talent flourish like never before. This year has proved that not only big budget films with only popular actors succeed but even offbeat subjects work well.”