Kannada Movie Review Dana Kayonu - Cast & Crew

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.

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.

R. Srinivas, popularly known as Kanakapura Srinivas, is an Indian film producer who isdedicated mainly to the production of motion pictures in the Kannada language. Kanakapura Srinivas owns RS Productions, one of India’s top film production house. Srinivas in 2001, started his film production career with ‘Subbu’ in Telugu starring Jr NTR and ‘Yuvaraja’ in Kannada starring Shiv Rajkumar.

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. 

Chetan Sosca is an Indian playback singer and composer. His record label is Aananda Audio Video. He is one of the famous figures in the Kannada Film and Music Industry who has sung more than 1000 songs. He was born in Bangalore, India. He has two daughters named Kruti and Tanya. He debuted in the music industry in 2001 with the film Kothigalu Saar Kothigalu along with the music composer Dr.Hamsalekha.

Kailash Kher was born on 7 July, 1973 in New Delhi. He is an Indian pop Singer, Music Director and his music style is influenced by, Indian Sufi and folk music. His family belongs to Kashmiri roots. His father named Pandir Mehar Singh Kher was a famous Folk Musician and Singer. Kailash was very interested in singing and music from his childhood. He left his home at the age of 14, for learning music and took proper lessons from his guru.

After many attempts, he didn’t get the right teacher. He began to learn music, by listening to the classical music of Indian singers like Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Kumar Gaurav, Pandit Gokulotsav Maharajand and also Lata Mangeshkar. After that, he started to teach music for his expenses in Delhi. Because of some problems in the family, he left singing and completed his graduation from Delhi University. When he was staying in Delhi, he met Paresh Kamath and Naresh Kamath in a concert. They together, started his band named “Kailasa”. Thus, he started his journey in his music career. 

He has sung more than 5000 songs in 20 different languages of India. He got the opportunity to sing in the movie “Andaaz” (Rabbaa Ishq Na hove). After this, his song “Allah ke Bande” from movie “Waisa Bhi Hota Hai 2” became very popular, and made him a popular singer in Bollywood. The song "Teri Deewani" from the album of the same name by his band Kailasa and the song "Ya Rabba" from the movie Salaam-e-Ishq had record sales. His band albums are Kailasa(2006), Jhooma Re (2007), Chaandan Mein (2009), Rangeele (2012),Naina Chaar (2013) etc. 

He won Filmfare award as Best Male Playback singer for the film Fanna (2007) and also won the Filmfare award as Best Male Playback Singer-Telugu for the film Mirchi.

Indian film actor, a producer, a playback singer, Sharan is a multitalented Kannada film actor and belongs to Kannada cinemas. Sharan usually appeared in a comic role as a lead actor or comedy themed movies. Though he did various negative and villain roles and also started his career with that only. Sharan went into the field of acting because of his parents as he had an interest in music first. He also has his album and also songs under his name. Personal Life: Sharan was born in Bangalore, Karnataka into a family of theater artists. His grandparents and parents were renowned artists at the Gubbi theater. Sharan is the son of J.V. Krishna. His younger sister, Shruti, was one of the leading Kannada actresses in the 90's. Though he entered the film industry due to pressure from his parents, his initial interest was in music and was part of an orchestra as a singer. He cut his own private devotional albums and also sang the title tracks for television series. Sharan married Pallavi and have two kids from her, son, Rudhay and Daughter, Punya. Career: Sharan didn’t want to be an actor in the beginning as he was scared about whether he would be able to cope up or reach at that height as his sister and his parents. Initially, he even ran from one if the sets during the shoot. Because of lack of confidence and to make an earning of his own, Sharan joined a computer course of 11 months which would serve him a job.

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.

Deepu S. Kumar is a South Indian film editor who works in the Kannada film industry. He has worked with Kannada directors like- ‘Duniya Soori’, ‘Harsha’, ‘Yograj Bhat’ and many others in movies like ‘Jackie’, ‘Bahaddur’, ‘Vajrakaya’ and many others. Deepu married Sudha Deepu on 19th August 2007 with whom he has two children. They live in Bangalore. Deepu made his film debut as a film editor with the movie ‘Mungaru Male’ written and directed by Yograj Bhat. The film hit the screens on 29th December 2006. He also worked in Bhat’s ‘Dana Kayonu’ in 2016. Deepu worked under director Duniya Soori in the film ‘Duniya’. The movie hit the screens on 23rd February 2007 and won three awards.

Vijay aka Duniya Vijay is an actor of Kannada cinema. This actor has acted in many films, and he was practically unrecognizable from the gritty characters that he played which were so meaningless. Later on, he landed up receiving some significant character and came to be recognized. His first film in which he appeared and got noticed was a film ‘Duniya’ in 2007. He had a struggling life in Sandalwood and stated to accept small roles till he was offered to play a good character by director Soori in 2007. Later, this talented actor had made his own niche of fans with his different movies and acting. However, he is a well-known face now who can play a lead hero in his films. Today, he is a well-known face in households for his role in ‘Johny Mera Naam Preethi Mera Kaam’ and ‘Jayammana Maga’. 

The year 2009 was a successful year for this actor while the year 2010 brought him mixed results in the box office. His fans like him because he was a struggling actor, who has evolved as an actor in his own terms. His fans always want to see him as Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee, as this actor is also known as Black Cobra among his fans. This actor is also a man of golden heart who takes part in philanthropic activities. As this actor does not have a photogenic face he was not cast as a hero. Therefore, he never considered him as a hero material. But he valued his hard work, and he portrayed his characters very differently with creativity films after the film. He is also known for doing his own stunt scenes or any jump sequences. He was married to Nagarathna but opted for divorce but finally had patched up thinking about his children status. This actor was born and brought up in a village and belonged to a very poor family. His father and grandfather used to act in plays. 

His first role in the film that he got only was after meeting Yograj Bhatt and Soori for film Ranga SSLC. He always wanted to become a hero, but senior artistes always advised to become first become an actor. He also did some stunt scenes in films. He used to part of all fight sequences in Kannada films with the entire major heroes. Thus, he took many risks to evolve as an actor. The actor landed up in getting mini-scale roles not only in films but also in television series. In 2015, his fans had loved him to watch in RX Soori, which was an action –oriented film. Currently, he is shooting for Yogaraj Bhat’s ‘’Dana Kayonu’’ that stars Priya Mani as his heroine. He was born on January 20, 1974, in Bengaluru.

Rangayana Raghu was born on 30th November, 1963. He acts in Kannada film industry and his genre is comedy. Till date he has appeared over 100 films and most of them have been comic roles.

He began his career in theatre group by name Rangayana in Mysore, way back in 1988.  His initial salary was just Rs 800 per month. He was supposed to make his debut with 1995 film Suggi, which was directed by award winning director Hamsalekha. Unfortunately, Suggi was shelved and never released.

His first major release was 2002 film Dhumm, starring Kiccha Sudeep and Rakshita directed by M.S. Ramesh. He went to act in films like Ranga SSLC, Rakshasa, and many more. However his best films till date are 2007 film Duniya and 2013 film Director's Special.

Duniya showcased Raghu at his best. Overall Duniya bagged 4 Karnataka State Film awards in 2007, including Best Supporting Actor for Rangayana Raghu. Director’s Special is a Kannada satire comedy film, written and directed by Guruprasad. Along with debutant Dhananjay, Rangayana Raghu essays the role of lead Panche Shastry / Ramachandra. This movie really showed Rangayana Raghu’s theatrical background and what he can do in a film with his power packed performance which was a mix of comedy and sarcasm.

Chikkanna was born in Ballahalli district of Mysuru city in Karnataka, India. He has been working in the show-business since 2011. He is best known for his works in the Kannada cinema. He has played many comic roles in various south Indian films. He debuted on television in a Mysore-based comedy show, titled Drishya Kalavide.

Born in a village in the district of Bidar, Karnataka, Vaijanath Biradar was raised in a joint family. He was a veteran actor, who filmed more than 350 movies in the Kannada film industry. His family possessed lands in their hometown of Tegampur in Balki taluk of Bidar district. Biradar stated that he had an obsession with acting since his childhood, which was responsible for the loss of focus in his studies. He ran away from home to join a theater company.

Bio coming soon...