Kannada cinema
Kannada cinema, also known as Sandalwood, or Chandanavana, is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Kannada language widely spoken in the state of Karnataka. Kannada cinema is based in Gandhi Nagar, Bangalore. The 1934 film Sati Sulochana directed by Y. V. Rao was the first talkie film to release in the Kannada language. It was also the first film starring Subbaiah Naidu and Tripuramba, and was the first motion picture screened in the erstwhile Mysore Kingdom. The film was produced by Chamanlal Doongaji, who in 1932 founded South India Movietone in Bangalore.
| Kannada cinema | |
|---|---|
| No. of screens | 925 (as of 2022) including:
|
| • Per capita | 1.3 per 100,000 |
| Main distributors | Mahatma Pictures Sri Vajreshwari Combines Sri Eswari Combines KCN Movies Rockline Entertainments Jayanna Combines Thoogudeepa Distributors Mars Distributors PRK Productions Paramvah Studios Pushkar Films Hombale Films KRG Studios |
| Produced feature films (2019) | |
| Total | 336 |
| Indian cinema |
|---|
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Major literary works have been adapted to the Kannada screen such as B. V. Karanth's Chomana Dudi (1975), (based on Chomana Dudi by Shivaram Karanth), Girish Karnad's Kaadu (1973), (based on Kaadu by Srikrishna Alanahalli), Pattabhirama Reddy's Samskara (1970) (based on Samskara by U. R. Ananthamurthy), which won the Bronze Leopard at Locarno International Film Festival, and T. S. Nagabharana's Mysuru Mallige (1992), based on the works of poet K. S. Narasimhaswamy.
Kannada cinema is known for producing experimental works such as Girish Kasaravalli's Ghatashraddha (1977), which won the Ducats Award at the Manneham Film Festival Germany, Dweepa (2002), which won Best Film at Moscow International Film Festival, Singeetam Srinivasa Rao's silent film Pushpaka Vimana (1987), Ram Gopal Varma's docudrama Killing Veerappan (2016), Prashanth Neel's action franchise K. G. F. film series being the highest-grossing Kannada film, and Rishab Shetty's Kantara (2022).
Kannada cinema is reported to have 8% market share in the gross domestic box office collections for the period January to August 2022 making it the fourth biggest Indian film industry. The share rose to 9% by October 2022. The total gross collections of the top five Kannada movies of 2022 in first ten months was reported to be ₹1800 crores. The year 2022 witnessed the beginning of new era for the industry in terms of popularity, quality content and collections. However, the market share of Kannada movies in the gross domestic box office collections reduced to 2% in 2023 with the footfalls reducing to 3.2 crores from 8.1 crores in 2022.