The 1970s and the 1980s are often considered to be the Golden Age of Kannada cinema. It was also the period that witnessed the birth of alternate cinema or parallel cinema. Kannada cinema spearheaded the parallel cinema movement in India along with Hindi, Bengali and Malayalam cinemas.Dr. Rajkumar had already acquired demigod status in Karnataka by then. Rajkumar concentrated only on Kannada and confined himself to the Kannada film industry until his last movie, Shabdavedhi. It is because of his passion for Kannada films that he ruled KFI as its undisputed leader from 1954-2006. He is considered the greatest actor that Kannada cinema has seen mainly because of the ease with which he enacted historical, mythological, social, adventurous and comedic roles.
B. V. Karanth's Chomana Dudi (an evocative film on caste distinctions), Girish Karnad's Kaadu and Girish Kasaravalli's Ghatashraddha spearheaded the Kannada parallel cinema. Vamshavruksha, Prema Karanth's Phaniyamma, Kadu Kudure, Hamsageethe, Accident, Akramana, Mooru Dhaarigalu, Tabarana Kathe,Bannadha Vesha and Puttanna Kanagal's Naagarahaavu were some of the important movies of this era. Dr.Vishnuvardhan and Dr.Ambareesh were the two stars born from the film Naagarahaavu. Dr. Vishnuvardhan went on to become a super star of south India acting in 220 films in 5 main languages of the country.
Dr.Rajkumar and Dr.Vishnuvardhan from then are considered the two pillars of the Kannada Film Industry. They both have been very instrumental in shaping the Kannada Identity.
Shankar Nag made his own mark with the internationally acclaimed Ondanondu Kaladalli and Malgudi Days, along with several commercial hits. Tiger Prabhakar,Ananth Nag, Lokesh, Ashok, Srinath, M. P. Shankar, and Sunder Krishna Urs were other actors who made their own mark in the industry. Puttana Kanagal paved the way for the above mentioned actors as well as Ramakrishna, Kokila Mohan, and Chandrashekar. Lakshmi, Padma Vaasanthi, Geetha, Madhavi, Saritha, and Jayamala were some of the actresses who made their mark.
The late 80's saw the emergence of V. Ravichandran and Shivarajkumar and Ramesh Aravind as top heroes, with a good number of family oriented films made during this period. Rajendra Singh Babu, D. Rajendra Babu, V. Somashekhar, Sai Prakash and M.S Rajshekhar are some of the best directors of this era. H. R. Bhargava directed numerous popular Kannada movies during the 1980s and 1990s.
Ravichandran and Hamsalekha successfully created a blend exclusively for youth. Ravichandran brought in actresses from other industries. The same era also marked the beginning of many actresses such as Bhavya, Mahalaxmi, Sudha Rani, Tara, Malashri, Anjali, Vanitha Vasu, Anjana, and Shruthi.
Kannada cinema is known among Indian cinemas for introducing the item song/Cabary dance.
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