However, what makes this film different is the fact that Nagarahavu was his debut film as lead actor and had also pushed his star status to a different level altogether after its release.
Earlier his other films Khaidi, Sahasasimha and Onde Guri too were released after decades. This is not the first time a Vishnu movie has been re-released. His performance and role stands out in the film.Įven years after its release, there have been remakes and the iconic title track from the film "Haavina dwesha, hannerdu varusha has been used and reused in several movies. Ashwath who played Ramachari's teacher won the best supporting actor. Putanna Kanagal walked away with the best screenplay award for Nagarahavu. On the other hand, TaRaSu was adjudged the best story writer while Chi Udayshankar drew a thunderous round of applause for his hard hitting dialogues. Supporting actress Shubha, who plays a critical role in the film won an award as best supporting actress while Vishnu and Arathi won state awards in the best actor and actress category respectively.
The leading lady was Arathi, who became a household name in Sandalwood after her spellbinding performance in the film. His whistle worthy rendition of the dialogue "ei bulbul mathadakilva" is popular even to this day among his fans. Rebel Star Ambareesh, who played the baddie also managed to garner huge praise for his performance. Nagarahavu also featured Ashwath, Loknath, Vajramuni, MN Lakshmi Devi, MP Shankar in key roles. His striking appearance as the angry young student as also his performance won the hearts of millions making him a competitor to the already established actor Dr Rajkumar. Nagarahavu changed the course of his career making the Abhinava Bhargava one of the most sought-after actors in Kannada cinema. His first release was Vamsha Vruksha where he played a supporting role. Incidentally, the film marked Sampath Kumar aka Vishnuvardhan's debut film as the lead actor. TaRaSu authored Nagarahavu, Ondu Gandu Eradu Hennu and Sarpa Mathasara which were all combined to make into a single movie. The director Putanna Kanagal, back then had combined three books of the author to give movie buffs a mind-blowing celluloid experience. Nagarahavu is based on a novel authored by renowned Kannada writer TaRaSu (TR Subba Rao). It's worth mentioning here that Nagarahavu was remade in Hindi as Zehreela Insaan, Kode Nagi in Telugu and Raaja Naagam in Tamil all of which were hits. With the film making all the right noises, the film's collections are only said pick up over the weekend. This is a record collection for any movie re-released till now. On day one itself, the film raked in a whopping one crore at the ticket window from the advance booking of tickets. The film which was released in 1972 had created the same hype and garnered as much appreciation from movie buffs back then. The iconic Ramachari role played by Vishnuvardhan is being talked about even to this day. The film features late Kannada legendary actor Dr Vishnuvardhan as the angry young man of Sandalwood. Like any other new movie, the makers of this film too held special shows as early as 6am on the first day. Multiplexes are cashing in on the craze by jacking up prices of tickets for weekend shows. The weekend tickets have been sold out with theatres putting out a housefull board. The newer version of Nagarahavu has been released in more than 200 screens across Karnataka.īesides, the hype surrounding the re-release was such that people queued up before theatres days in advance to grab their tickets. The re-release of the cult kannada classic had raised a lot of expectations among the audiences. The film has been produced and re-released under N Veeraswami's Eashwari Productions banner by his younger son Balaji. While celebrities have given their thumbs up to the digitized and better version of the Kannada classic hit, Nagarahavu, youngsters who had missed the yesteryear hit has hailed the film as the best one till date. The film has opened to a phenomenal response from the audience. Dr Vishnuvardhan's earliest movies, Nagarahavu directed by late maverick director Puttanna Kanagal was re-released yesterday.