Kannada Movie Review Chowka - Cast & Crew

Antara Mitra was born on 10th July 1987 in the state of West Bengal. She is a very famous playback singer, who is absolutely good with her vocals. The solid platform which gave her an avenue to the Bollywood film industry was her participation in a reality show of Sony TV. The name of the show is Indian Idol of season two which took place in the year 2006. She was an active participant of the show, which turned out to be the key reason for her entry into playback singing. 

Antara Mitra had an absolute enthusiasm in singing and her father was the one who motivated her. This had moulded her to become the finalist of the shows Indian Idol 2 and Junoon. Inspite of the fact that she could not turn up to be the title winner of the show, she became a prominent singer which gave immense bliss for the singer. Her initial dream was always to pursue a career in the arena of medicine, but her passion towards singing brought her to the wonder world of Bollywood Cinema. 

Her father is a tutor in music and she learned music right from her age of three. Her immense potential in singing has been manifested rather than getting latent and she made it quite evident in her movies. The versatile part of Antara is that she is pretty much capable of singing in about multiple languages. 

This includes Bengali, Hindi, English and Urdu. She is a very consistent singer in the Bollywood film industry. In the Indian Idol 2 contest, Antara proved her skills in a splendid way upon the Theatre, Piano and Gala rounds. After her overwhelm in the contest, she gave some unforgettable performances in the stage shows. This highlighted her blissful singing in a sharp manner and the exquisite aspects of her voice articulation.

Deepa Sannidhi’s actual name is Rahasya. Born in the year 1990 in Chikkamagaluru, Karnataka, she is Kannada actress. Her father, a coffee estate owner and mother a homemaker. She was in her first year of Architecture, when she was offered a role in the movie. She dropped out of college to pursue her interests in acting. The year was 2011.

Saarathi was the debut movie of Sannidhi. This movie is a romantic action starring Darshan. She has played the role of Rukmini in this movie, which received good reviews and was a blockbuster. Her next movie was Paramathma, directed by Yogaraj Bhat. She is cast opposite Puneeth Rajkumar where she plays the role of Deepa aka Thithi Vade. This movie too did very well in the box-office. 2012, saw Deepa in Jaanu, where she is cast opposite Yash. Sakkare saw her in the year 2013 opposite Ganesh, as Neha in the film. This movie was directed by Abhaya Simha. 

The 2014 will see her diversify into acting in Tamil movies too. She has Ennakul Oruvan opposite Siddharth which is a psychological thriller. Yatchan is another upcoming movie in Tamil directed by Vishnuvardhan. In Kannada, Deepa will be seen in the movie Love Churumuri. 

After Kannada and Tamil, we wonder which language she is going to explore next. We can only wait and watch as only time will tell!

Aindrita Ray is a prominent Kannada actress, who hails from Rajasthan. Aindrita Ray is a beautiful model, who turned into an actress. Her father worked in the Indian Air Force and hence they shifted their residence to Bangalore. She completed her Alma Mater from Baldwin Girls School in Bangalore. She completed her Bachelor degree in Dental Science from M. R. Ambedkar Dental College, Bangalore.

Bhavana, a Malayalam Actress, was born in Thrissur, Kerala in the year 1986. by an acting bug at a very early age, this actress started her first movie at the mere age of sixteen while still studying. Her first movie in Malayalam she debuted was Nammal opposite Siddharth, Jishnu and Renuka Menon. This movie received great reviews and acclaimed awards in the cinema industry.   

Priyamani is a talented actress of the Southern film industry. She received the prestigious National Award for her role in the Tamil film Paruthiveeran. Before entering into the film industry, Priyamani was doing modeling. 

Born on June 4, 1984 in Bengaluru, Priyamani debuted into the film industry with the film Tamil flick Kangalal Kaidhu Sei. The film was a disaster at the box office and she shifted to Telugu and Malayalam films. Pellaina Kothalo is her debut Telugu film opposite Jagapati Babu. This film gained her the much-needed recognition and it was declared a super hit. She came to Tamil industry with a bang through the flick Paruthiveeran, sharing screen space with Karthi Sivakumar. Satyam was her first Malayalam film, but this film was not well received at the box office. In 2005 she made her screen presence in Balu Mahendra’s flick Adhu Oru Kana Kalam opposite Dhanush. Though this film was appreciated by critics, it bombed at the box office. Priyamani’s performance also received good response. 

Alongside getting the National Award for her stellar performance in Paruthiveeran, Priyamani received State Film Award and South Filmfare Award. She also received an international award for this film. The 2007 Telugu flick Yamadonga was another successful film in her career. During the same year she had another hit in the form of the Tamil film Malaikottai. Thirakkatha is a Malayalam film in which she received critical appreciation. This film also fetched her Filmfare award. 

Thotta, Arumugam, Classmates, Raam are some of the other Malayalam films in which Priyamani acted. The 2010 Malayalam flick Pranchiyettan and the Saint was a roaring success in her career. Maniratnam’s Raavanan, Ram Gopal Verma’s Raktha Charithra were the other films that she acted. Vishnuvardhana, her Kannada flick, was also a superhit. Kannada film Anna Bond of 2012 was a box office success. She worked in another venture in Bollywood (apart from Raavan) by doing an item number in Chennai Express, opposite Shahrukh Khan. 

Priyamani knows many languages including Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Hindi and Kannada. She is the cousin of Bollywood siren Vidya Balan.

AP Arjun is a multi-talented and highly skilled personality from the Kannada cinema. He is credited to have all the skills that are required to bring the much-needed improvement and revolution in the Kannada film industry. He was born in the year 1972 on 8th of August and is 42 years old. His birthplace is in a town in Karnataka named Mandya.

S. Krishna is an Indian film director and a cinematographer. He has mainly contributed to the Kannada film Industry. His works as a cinematographer was very unique and he gave a new look to cinematography with his excellent visual effects. His breathtaking work could be seen in the movie Mungaru Male, a romantic classic film. He's a graduate from the Government Film and Television Institute, in Bangalore.

Santhosh Rai Pathaje is a Cinematographer of South Indian film industry, lives in Bangalore, India. He has skills in photography media productions such as Video, Television, Video production, entertainment, commercials, documentaries, new media, film, post production, and film production. Along with all these , he is also a scriptwriter, costume designer, film director, and a colourist. Critics say,“if the photography of a Kannada movie is looking luxurious, and glossy, then definitely Santhosh Rai Pathaje is behind it.”

Satya Hegde was born on the 17th of May in the year 1975. He was born in Haliyal, Uttar Kannada, Karnataka, India. He is attached to the Kannada Film Industry. He is a cinematographer by profession. He works mainly in Kannada films. He made his debut in this Industry as a cinematographer in the year 2002 through the movie Taali Katuuva Shubhavele. He has been a cinematographer in over twenty films in his entire career. He had reached great heights of success in 2007 and 2013 when he was a part of the movies Duniya and Mayna respectively. He had received awards for these films.

Shekar Chandru or commonly known as Shekar Chandra is a Kannada cinematographer from India, born on 1st January 1970 in Bangalore, Karnataka. Chandra started his career by cinematographing his first-ever movie Krishnan Love Story in 2010. Apart from that, he has cinematographed various other movies including Armane, and Bombaat in 2008, Gulama and Sangama in 2009, the famous Krishnan Sequel, Andhar Bahar in 2013, and Chowka in 2017, and many more.

Anoop Seelin was born in the town of Hassan, Karnataka on 24th of October. He's known to be a multi-talented personality, especially in the Kannada film industry. He works as a music director as well as a playback singer.

Arjun Janya is an Indian singer and music composer. In 2006, he made his debut in the industry with Kannada movie Autograph Please starring Dilip Raj and Sanjjanaa. In the south film industry, he is a score director and composer of high demand. The movies for which he composes music have done well on box-office in past. He is known for music in Sanchari and Singam. He was born on May 13, 1980, in Bengaluru, Karnataka to Anusuya and Ashwath Kumar. He learnt music from James and thinks of AR Rahman as his inspiration. It is said that a meeting between him and AR Rahman changed him and converted him into what he is today.

V. Harikrishna is an Indian movie background score and soundtrack author, playback vocalist and also a movie producer. He has primarily produced background score for many Kannada movies. After his job as a software engineer and associate music artist, he made his entrance as a free music director in the movie Jothe Jotheyali, which starred the famous actor Darshan and was released in the year 2006. From that point onwards, he has been making music for many of Darshan's movies. 

Yogaraj Bhat was born on 8th October, 1973 in Mandarthi, in coastal district Udupi of Karnataka. He is the 7th child of Ramachandra and Jayalakshmi Bhat. Ramachandra lost his life in a boat mishap.

Yogaraj is a famous director in Sandalwood industry. He has also tasted success as a lyricist, producer and screenwriter. He is mostly known for his 2006 hit Mungaru Male, which was written by Bhat along with Preetam Gubbi. He directed the film and wrote lyrics with others. Mungaru Male recorded the highest box office collections in Sandalwood history. His other achievements include introducing talented technicians to the industry like Pawan Kumar of Lucia, Pawan Wadeyar and many others.

His lyricist journey started with Mungaru Maleye from his film Mungaru Male and there was no looking back. He has written lyrics for more than 100 super hit songs for the films such as Gaalipata, Jackie, Junglee, Hudugaru, Paramathma, Pancharangi, Chingari, Super, Anna Bond, Crazy Loka, Shiva, Lifeu Ishtene, Johny Mera Naam, Victory and many more. He is so versatile that he can write a song like Mungaru Maleye and a fast one like Hale Paathre, showing his range of lyrical talent.

Bhat was inspired by classics like Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Akira Kurosawa's Ran and came to Bangalore at 22, to become a cameraman. As a newcomer, he served as an assistant to Girish Kasaravalli, Sunil Kumar Desai and many others. He was more thrilled about watching film making at close quarters than working with big names.

Bhat directed a TV serial, before making his first film. But it took him 8 years, before a producer could back him independently. His first movie was Mani and that showed memorable performances by Rangayana Raghu and veteran actress Umashree, both won State awards for their roles in the movie. Then he directed Ranga SSLC (2004) starring Sudeep and Ramya in the leading roles, however it did not do very well.

His next film after a long break Mungaaru Male became the biggest hit in South India, creating a record and followed by another hit, Gaalipata. He also acted in the film Dyavre for one of his assistants, which started his acting career.

Sonu Nigam is a renowned Bollywood singer and composer. He was born on July 30, 1973 in Faridabad, Haryana. Hailing from a musical background, both his parents are singers. He is the son of singer Agam Kumar Nigam. The first performance he gave was at the tender age of 3 when he performed the song Kya Hua Tera Wada by Mohammed Rafi. Besides singing Hindi songs he has recorded songs in Kannada, Assamese, Oriya, Tamil, Bengali, Punjabi, Nepali and Marathi languages. He is amongst the top Playback singers in Bollywood and has also released a few individual pop albums. Nigam moved to Mumbai at the age of 19, to start a career in Bollywood as a singer. He is the prodigy of famous Hindustani classical singer Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan. Though he started his career by covering songs of Mohammed Rafi under the T-Series record label owned by Gulshan Kumar, his first break came in 1990 when he did playback singing in the movie called Janam. In 1995 he started hosting the popular musical TV show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, after which he delivered the famous single Acha Sila Diya Tune for the film Bewafa Sanam. Some of his famous tracks are Sandese Aate Hai from the movie Border (1997), Ye Dil Deewana from the movie Pardes (1997). In 1999 he released his debut album Deewana, he also sang the title track for the movie Kal Ho Na Ho. As an individual composer he has worked on movies like Singh Saab The Great, Sooper Se Ooper and Jal. Nigam has contributed in Britney Spears track I Wanna Go, and has also released a track in the album The Beat of Our Hearts as a tribute to Michael Jacskon. In his small acting career he has acted in films like Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahaani, Love In Nepal and Kaash Aap Humaare Hote. Nigam is married to Madhurima and also had a son named Neevan.

Vijay Prakash is an Indian playback singer and film composer. He was born in Mysore and moved to Mumbai in 1996. He worked in so many Hindi films including Blue, Yuvraaj, Swades, Kaal, Lakshya, Matrubhoomi, Tere Naam, Cheeni Kum, Raavan, and Force.

Arun Sagar is an Kannada cinema actor. He also worked as Art director and comedian. His birthplace is Sagara,Karnataka, where he was born on 23rd October 1965. This versatile personality has done around 15 Kannada movies, one Tamil and one Telugu movie and he was a part of 7 TV shows. He earned Karnataka State Award in 2002 and 3rd Suvarna Flim Award in 2010 for Best Art Director by his talent. Arun sagars wife name is Meera and they have a really beautiful daughter.

Mohan B Kere works in the Indian film industry as an Art Director. He mainly works in the Kannada Film Industry. Mohan was born on 25th May and currently lives in Bangalore, Karnataka. Mohan B Kere is married to Rekha and is the father of two children. He started his career from the film titled Krishna, which released in 2007, produced by Ramesh Yadav and directed by M. D. Sridhar. Mohan has also created the 3D painting in the field. Mohan has contributed his production designing skills in Kannada Film Industry for more than a hundred movies and still showing up in many more movies.

KM Prakash is an Indian editor of films. He was born in the city of Bangaluru, located in Karnataka, India. He has worked in industries like Sandalwood, Kollywood, and Tollywood. He works predominantly in the Kannada movie industry. He has worked in popular movies like Trivikrama, Marigold, etc. His latest film was Trivikrama which will be released in 2021. Trivikrama is a romantic movie starring Vikram Ravichandran, Akansha Sharma, and Akshara Gowda. The movie is directed by Sahana Murthy S and produced by Somanna. He is the candidate for the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Editor for the movie “Tony,” released in 2013. He made his debut in 2009 as a film editor in the film “Meghave Meghave.”

Born in Bengaluru, Vijay Raghavendra is an Indian Actor, who mainly works in Kannada films. He began his life as a child star and eventually worked in profuse films as the male protagonist. In 2013, he won the first enlightenment of Bigg Boss (Kannada). He has been married to Spandana since 2007.

Darshan also known as Darshan Thoogudeep is an actor from South India well known for his roles mainly in Kannada movies. He is known to be one of the most famous and credible film stars in the Kannada cinema industry.

Prajwal Devaraj is an actor from the Kannada film Industry. He currently lives in Bangalore, India. Prajwal is the offspring of a famous actor ‘Devaraj’, and that’s now his last name comes from. His father is known as ‘Dynamic King’ and that’s why people call Prajwal ‘Dynamic Prince’ – father like son. Prajwal finished his Bachelors in Arts degree in Shri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College of Management Studies which is at Bangalore.

Prem Kumar is an Indian actor working in Kannada films. He made his debut in the year 2004 with the film ‘Praana’ but got his fame with the 2005 hit film ‘Nenapirali’. Prem even won a Filmfare Best Actor Award for this movie. He was born on 18 April 1975 in Karnataka to a weaver.

Bungle Shama Rao Dwarakanath on 19th August 1942, in Hunsur to Bungle Shama Rao and Jayamma. He has a diploma in Mechanical Engineering before he entered world of cinema, not many know that. He was named Dwarakish by the well known Kannada film maker C. V. Shivashankar.

After completing his diploma, Dwarakish along with his brother started an automotive spare parts business in Mysore. He was attracted to acting from young age and often pestered his maternal uncle, a famous director Hunsur Krishnamurthy for a chance in movies.

Dwarakish produced his first film Mamateya Bandhana in 1966. And his independent production was in 1969, Mayor Muthanna under his own banner Dwaraka Films. He had Dr Rajkumar and Bharathi in lead roles, which was a great hit. From here on, he had a series of box office successes for next two decades. In 1985, Dwarakish began directing with Nee Bareda Kadambari. His directorial films include Nee Bareda Kadambari, Dance Raja Dance, Shruthi, Jai Karnataka, Rasika, Shruthi Haakida Hejje, Nee Thanda Kanike, Rayaru Bandaru Mavana Manege, KilaadigaLu and Majnu.

In between Dwarakish incurred huge losses due to box office failures, he was written off by entire film industry which had loved him. He had claimed on Udaya TV, that he had lost close to 32 crores of rupees. Despite this, he continued making movies and bringing new faces to the industry. No wonder not only actors, he has shown doors of opportunity to many new directors and technicians. He is fondly considered as their "Godfather". Their love and his never dying attitude, gave Dwarakish his long awaited success. He produced ApthaMitra with Vishnuvardhan as lead in 2004. It was a huge success. Industry considers him to be instrumental in the careers of greats like Vishnuvardhan, Manjula, and Srinath.

As an actor, he was known for his comic timing. However some of his movies were comic action movies with his action co star Vishnuvardhan. His nick name is ‘Kulla’ meaning short man in Kannada. He shot Singapoorinalli Raja Kulla in Singapore, by doing so became the first one in the industry to do so. He has produced close to 50 films and acted in more than 250 of them.

On 16th April 2024, Dwarakish suffered a sudden cardiac arrest and died at his residence. He was 81.

Diganth is one of the sizzling male model-turned-actors, who will melt your heart. He is the chocolate hero in Sandalwood, and his cute expression and dialogue delivery had always impressed the teenage girls very much. His soft look and youthful mannerism has made girls’ meltdown their hearts. He is one of the hunky sandalwood actors, who got his start in the industry as a model! He made his acting debut in Miss California in 2006. Born to Mr. Krishnamurthy, a professor, and Mallika Krishnamurthy, who are his father and mother, Diganth joined the film industry in 2006. 

Gurukiran or also known as Gurukiran Shetty is a well-known music director from the Kannada film industry, who started his career in the year 1994 as director V. Manohar’s assistant. He was born on October 28 in Mangalore, Karnataka to K Jayaram Shetty and Ratnakanti. He studied at St. Aloysius Primary School in the early 70’s and he is an active class singer back then. He graduated Commerce in Mangalore University and after that he started to perform in orchestras as a singer and keyboardist. 

Gurukiran entered the film industry as a music director for the Upendra-starrer and directorial film entitled A in the year 1998. Due to the success of the film, Upendra wanted him to work again on his next film. Gurukiran composed the songs in the psychological-thriller Kannada film, Upendra in year 1999, while Upendra himself penned the lyrics. 

Besides music, Gurukiran wanted to enter the film industry as an actor and so he tried his luck in Sandalwood. Gurukiran’s first film was entitled Mr. Shanker Bekal as a cameraman. He then appeared on his first major role in the 1993 heist thriller film, Nishkarsha, helmed by Sunil Kumar Desai. However, he failed to make an impact as an actor. 

His major breakthrough came in the year 2005 in Shivarajkumar-starrer Jogi, where he sang the songs Hodi Maga and Bin Ladennu Nan Maava. This record made an all time record in the Kannada film industry with a record selling prior to the release of the film. In 2007, he entered the Telugu film industry with the Telugu remake of Jogi entitled Yogi, helmed by V. V. Vinayak. He also scored the music for the Telugu film, Nagavalli in 2010. 

Gurukiran has been into judging musical talent show such as Confident Star Singer Season 2 on Asianet Suvarna and on ETV Kannada’s Ede Tumbi Haduvenu. He sang several songs in Kannada films, including the Kanasina Maratta from the Kannada romance film, Banna Bannada Loka, which became a big hit. Gurukiran received several awards for his outstanding contributions to the Kannada film industry, including the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Music Director in 2011 and many more. 

He got married to Pallavi Guru Kiran and they have been blessed with two children namely Hrudaya and Shravya.

Born on January-24-1955 in Gokarna, Mysore, Jayant Kaikini is an eminent Kannada poet and songwriter. He has also penned down several short stories. His father, Gourish Kaikiki, was a teacher, and his mother, Shanta, a philanthropist. Jayant had a Masters degree in biochemistry and completed his post-graduation from Karnataka University in Dharwad in Karnataka. He then migrated to Mumbai and started working as a chemist in Procter and Gamble. Jayant speaks other languages also including Konkani, Marathi, English and Hindi.

Sambharam V Sridhar is an Indian music composer who works in the Kannada film industry. Sridhar hails from Bengaluru. He attended lectures at SJR College, Bengaluru. 1620 people follow his Facebook account where they get latest updates of Sridhar’s projects. Sridhar got his first Sandalwood chance when the producers zeroed in on him for Mussanje Maathu which released in 2008. Although Sridhar was a newcomer at the time, famous Bollywood vocalists such as Sonu Nigam, Kunal Ganjawala, Udit Narayan, and Shreya Ghoshal lent their voices to the songs for Mussanje Maathu.

Tharun is a prominent director, writer, and actor predominantly working in Kannada Cine Industry. He is the son of the yesteryear Kannada actor Sudhir and brother of the famous director Nanda Kishore who also directs films in Kannada. He co-directed his first film Rambo in the year 2012 with the director M.S. Sreenath. While his first solo venture as a director was the film named Chowka released in the year 2017.

Yogish Dwarakish is an Indian film director who dominatingly works in the Kannada film industry. In 2014, he filled in as an official maker on the activity parody film Maanikya. He has additionally delivered the motion picture 'Niagara' dependent on Agatha Christie's epic, And Then There Were None. Yogish's 2017 discharges incorporate the motion pictures 'Chowka' coordinated by Tarun Sudhir and 'Awake' coordinated by K.M. Chaitanya. His 2018 discharge incorporates Amma I Love You. He received nominations for several awards including- Filmfare Award for Best Film – Kannada and IIFA Utsavam Award for Best Film - Kannada, which proves his directorial expertise.

Bio coming soon...

Bio coming soon...

Bio coming soon...