Kannada Movie Review Nagarahavu - Cast & Crew

Chaitra H G was born on June 18, 1984 in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Chaitra’s father 'H S Gopinath' is an eminent tabla player and Indian Classical singer. Chaitra H G is a well-known playback singer and has provided vocals to over 500 songs in different languages like Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Tamil. She attended Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Bangalore where she pursued her graduate studies in Information Science and Engineering.

Divya Raghavan, is also known as The Nightingale of Sugam Sangeeth, is a renowned playback singer of the Sandalwood industry. This melodious singer is working in the Kannada film industry for two decades.

Indu Nagaraj is a Kannada playback singer who primarily works in the Kanada film industry. She has a successful singing career and had achieved a Filmfare Award for the song "Pyarge Aagbittaite" from the film Govindaya Namaha in 2012. She was born into a musical family at Chilkunda village in Mysore, Karnataka. She was trained in Carnatic classical music and Sugama Sangeetha music under her father since her childhood. In 2005, she performed and participated together in the singing reality show Ede Thumbi Haaduvenu hosted and judged by acclaimed singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam. Both of the sisters together performed at various events and were recognized in the name "Chilkunda Sisters”.

Sravana Bhargavi is an Indian-Telugu Playback singer and recorded numerous songs in Telugu. Apart from singing, she has also dubbed for several films. As a graduate, Bhargavi holds bachelor's of Technology degree from Vignan Institute of Technology and Science, Hyderabad. She is presently pursuing Masters of Business Administration studies. Shravana first debuted in the area of playback singing with the Telugu song “Simhamanti Chinnode" from the film 'Simha' in the year 2010. She also sang the song "Ale Bale" for the movie 'Theenmaar' and "Bhoom Shakenaka" for the film 'Khaleja.' After having a successful career as a singer, she finally married to singer Vedala Hemachandra on February 14, 2013. Bhargavi has also hosted a show on 92.7 Big FM in Hyderabad, India.

She was born on May 10, 1978 in Guntur city of Andhra Pradesh into a Telugu Brahmin family. Her original name was Sunitha Upadrashta.

She started training at an age of 3 in Carnatic vocal and light music. She learnt music for eight years. At the age of fifteen she won national award for All India Radio. She began her career as playback singer in 1995 for the movie Gulabi (a musical hit Telugu cinema).

She worked as playback singer, anchor and dubbing artist. She got married very early at an age of 19, her husband Kiran also works for media. Couple got two children, son and a daughter.

She gave voice to famous heroines like Jyothika (wife of actor surya), Anushka Shetty (famous south Indian actress), Bhoomika(famous heroine in south Indian films), Charmi kaur (predominant telugu heroine), Laila, Meera Jasmine (national award winning actress), Soundarya (versatie actress), Sonali Bendre (Indian actress, television personality and model, also appeared in Bollywood), Shreya Sharan (south Indian actress from Dehradun), Genelia dsouza (Indian actress and wife of Ritesh Deshmuk), Sneha (Telugu born beauty),  Katrina Kaif (leading Bollywood heroine), Tamannah (milk beauty from Punjab), Trisha Krishnan (an established leading actress), Kamlini Mukherji (famous for her homely appearence), Nayanatara (Diana Mariam Kurian, a kerala beauty and leading actress) etc. All the above mentioned heroines acted with top actresses and have blockbusters in their career; many of them are still seen on screen. She had a record of dubbing sixty movies in a single year. She dubbed almost 750 films, also received four Nandi awards from AP government as best dubbing artist.

She worked with almost more than twenty music directors, she sang more than 3000 songs in films itself. She is even associated with Tamil and Kannada. She had given many stage shows abroad as singer. She won a film fare award as best female playback singer. She won many Nandi awards as playback singer for both movies and TV serials.

She won many gold medals in her childhood itself and she won more than 25 other awards as best female singer. She was internationally recognized.

She participated in many TV shows also. She gave more than 500 programmes on AIR, Doordarshan, ETV, Gemini TV, and MAA TV.

She hosted many TV shows related to music, ‘Navaragam’ on Gemini TV, ‘Jhunmmandi Naadam’, ‘Saptasvaralu’, ‘Paaduta Teeyaga’ on ETV, ‘Saregamapa’ on ZEE Telugu. She was taking part in ‘Super Singer (reality-based Indian singing competition)’ series on MAA TV from 4th series as participant, mentor and judge. She bagged ‘Super Singer-7’ title recently.

Dhaval Jayantilal Gada, popularly known as DG, is an Indian film and TV producer. He is a young businessperson who is quickly turning into a power figure within the Hindi film industry and the television industry. Born to Hansa Gada and Hindi film maker Jayantilal Gada, Dhaval is an acclaimed producer and establisher of the famous PEN India Ltd, which is a movie production banner. He has a sister and a brother. He was born in Mumbai. He did his education from Pinewood International (Panchgani) and then finished his further studies in Mumbai.

Sajid Qureshi is an Indian film director, and writer and producer. He was born on 1 January 1970. He started his career as a film producer by producing a Kannada movie Nagarahavu(2016).

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.

H.C. Venugopal is a cinematographer. He has worked for Sandalwood (Kannada) and Kollywood (Telegu) film industries. He also has some notable works in the Telugu industry. He has been active since 1996 and has predominantly worked in the Kannada film industry. Some of his unique creations in the Kannada language are A (1998), Sparsha (1999), H2O (2002), Aa Dinagalu (2007), Jaggu Dada (2016), Anthu Inthu Preethi Banthu (2008) to name a few. Venugopal was also involved in shooting the first 3D Kannada film Katari Veera Surasundarangi (2012). Venugopal has also made the bilingual films, Jaihind 2 (2014) and Prema Baraha (2018) in collaboration with Arjun Sarja, an actor, producer, and director who works in the Tamil film industry.

Santosh Nayak is an Indian screenwriter and lyricist, popular amongst the regional audience for his work in movies like Govindaaya Namaha (2012). Mostly known for his major involvement in Kannada TV series, short films, and Sandalwood movies, Santosh has been a prominent part of the Indian film industry for more than ten years now.

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.

Nakash Aziz, is an Indian playback singer and music composer in Bollywood industry. He was born on 24 February, 1985. Basically Nakash Aziz comes from a petit town Moodbidri, near Mangalore, Karnataka. He is well known for his hit songs like “Sari Ke Fall Sa” and “Gandi Baat”, both songs came from the movie ‘R… Rajkumar’ (2013) and another song ‘Dhating Nach’ from a film ‘Phata Poster Nikla Hero’ (2013). All these songs are picturised on ‘Shahid Kapoor’. Nakash has also assisted a very famous and “The Living Legend Composer and singer” Mr. A. R. Rehman on Hindi films such as ‘Delhi 6’,’I’, ‘Rockstar’, ‘Raanjhanaa’ and ‘Highway’. Before becoming a playback singer he worked as music composer for TV serials. He also composed for Marathi films like ‘Raada Rox’ and ‘No Entry Pudhe Dhoka Aahe’. Nakash comes from a musical family, and his taste was influenced by his father and uncle. They were famous for voice-alike of very famous singers ‘Kishor Kumar’ and ‘Mukesh’ in hometown Mangalore. During his initial days in Mumbai, Aziz got a small-time job in a reality show where A.R. Rehman was one of the judges. And now in 2015 he is performing in ‘IIFA awards’ with a new singer in the block, ‘Sonakshi Sinha’ and ‘Mika Singh’. Aziz says, “I want to be anything that music allows me to be, even if it comes up with a small musical idea like introducing a slight variation in my singing for Amit Trivedi’s Aisha title song”.

Shankar Mahadevan, a well-renowned, talented and famous music composer, and singer. An accomplished musician in Tamil cinema, he is a part of the Shankar Ehsaan Loy trio team that provides music to Bollywood and other International films. He has won various Indian and multiple National Film Award. His most famous albums include, “Breathless“- Album that first gave him fame, including the song, "Breathless," in which he sings throughout the whole song without pausing to breathe and “Nine” - Nine is Shankar's most recent album. Each song is a representation of a "mood," including joy, sadness, love, etc. He was also invited by UNESCO and the US State Department to perform at the UN General Assembly Hall for the finale of the International Jazz Festival on 30 April 2012 which is a thing of pride. Shankar has always considered himself as a restless student wanting to learn more every time. He says he’s thirsty and want to learn every time and experiment with something new. He wants to be a perfectionist. Shanker also feels that Karnatak music is the most powerful form of music and he himself started with Karnataka classic which he says is the best to create a prominent base for music. Music is the thing which excites Shanker the most, and he would always be attached to it. Personal Life: Shanker Mahadevan was born in Chennai to a Tamil family but was later brought to Mumbai and was raised there. Being born into a Tamil family and later raised in Mumbai, he knows both Hindi and Tamil language but is not well versed with Tamil and Malayalam. He finished his schooling from OLPS High School in Chembur and his engineering in computer science from R.A.I.T (D Y Patil, Navi Mumbai). His wife, Sangeeta is Maharashtrian and oldest son Siddharth Mahadevan. Also, a singer, made his debut on the 2013 Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’s song, Zinda. Shankar’s youngest son, Shivam Mahadevan, also a singer made his debut in 2013 in the movie Dhoom 3’s song, Bande Hain Hum Uske. Mahadevan is fluent in Marathi, Tamil, Hindi, Urdu and English.

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.

Imran’s story is that of heart melting, emotional and romantic drama. Overcoming the obstacle of parental and societal opposition he eloped as a teenager. Before leaving, he promised his ladylove that he would return only after making something of himself. Well, he didn’t let her down. Born on 28th December 1979 to late Haji Ayub, Imran Sardhariya is a well-known choreographer and a film director of the Telugu and Kannada cinema. His wife Saniya is a costume designer. His shot to fame has been with the famous song ‘Stylo Stylo’. To add to his list of accomplishments, he has about 250 songs accredited to him and also the choreography of two Telugu movies – Josh and Chalaaki.

Joni Harsha is a prominent film editor and recently turned producer. He is a veteran of the Tamil and Kannada film industry, having worked behind the scenes on more than a hundred films in the two film industries in South India. Recently, he decided to produce and launched a comedy TV serial that currently airs on primetime TV on the channel Zee Kannada. Harsha began his career in the film industry in the early parts of the 1990’s.

Ravivarma is a stunt director of Indian movies. He is mainly a Kannada film action master. He came to limelight after being nominated for best stunt director for the movie “Kempe Gowda” (2011). Apart from that, he notably worked in “Vishnuvardhana”(2011). Verma became popular in Bollywood industry after his debut stunt direction in Salman Khan’s film “ Jai Ho”(2014) directed by Sohail Khan.

Thriller Manju is a person who has left no stone unturned in the field of cinema. A multitalented person, he is a director, a stunt director, an actor and a choreographer. He was born as Manjunatha Kumar in the city of Bengaluru in Karnataka. He has been working in the Kannada Film Industry since the year 1990. Manju entered the film industry through the movie Gejja Nadu in the year 1993. He started out as an actor and did small supporting roles in movies like Jana Nayaka and Shh! a thriller film in the 1990s. After a few stints in acting, he went on to become the captain of the ship that is the director. He ventured into filmmaking in the year 1996 through a cop movie. Thriller Manju, as his name suggests, made a thrilling and racy cop flick titled Police Story. This movie, whose story and screenplay were also written by Manju, had actor Sai Kumar in the lead. It became an instant blockbuster and even today remains a trademark film. The after effect of the movie was so high that fans started to expect another similar movie from Manju, which led him to direct the sequels for this cult film. In the year 2006, after ten years of the release of the first one, Manju directed its sequel movie titled Police Story 2. This flick also had the ‘Dialogue King’ Sai Kumar in the lead. The movie opened up to mixed reviews.

Vishnuvardhan was born in Mysore. He attended high school and obtained degree at the National College, Bangalore. He adopted the name Vishnuvardhan at the insistence of Puttanna Kanagal, who was like is godfather and mentor, who also directed his maiden film, Naagarahaavu. This gave him the recognition of the ‘angry young man of Kannada cinema. “Ramachaari”, the character Vishnuvardhan played in Nagarahaavu, is still considered as among the best roles that have donned in Kannada cinema to date. Vishnuvardhan did not look back since then and went on to win many state honors and five film fare awards. Vishnuvardhan was popularly called by his fans as Sahasa Simha and Abhinava Bhargava.

Vishnuvardhan, a versatile actor, made his debut into the industry through "Vamshavruksha", directed by Girish Karnad in 1972, who is also Janapeetha awardee. For this Movie Vishnuvardhan won the National Award. Shankar Nag directed Malgudi Days and introduced Vishnuvardhan as the main actor in one of the episodes. In his long career, he played popular roles in more than 220 films. Apart from Kannada He has also acted in Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi movies. The existence of three decades in Kannada cinema was itself an indication of his strong ability. There is nothing like a good film or a bad film but there is a good time or bad time Vishnuvardhan kept on saying from the beginning of his career.

He was married to Kannada actress Bharathi on 27 February 1975. He had 2 adopted daughters, Keerthi and Chandana. Vishnuvardhan started an organization called Sneha Loka to promote harmony and to help during calamities like floods. He was also known for his personal involvement in many charitable causes.  Vishnuvardhan died of a massive Heart attack on 30 December 2009 in Mysore and was later cremated at Abhinay Studio with full state honors.

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.

Mukul Dev was born in Khatri Punjabi family. His father was a formal police commissioner of Delhi. He is a brother of a famous mode and actor “Rahul Dev” he completed his schooling from “St. Columba’s School, Delhi in 1998. Mukul is trained Pilot from “Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi”. He started his career from small screen television serial named “Mumkin”.

Rajesh Vivek is an Indian actor. He was born on 31st January 1949 in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh. His parents are Raj Bahadur Upadhyay and Prem Kumari Upadhyay. He took Masters’ Degree in Ancient History and Archaeology from T D Degree College, Jaunpur. Rajesh started his career doing theater dramas as an actor. Shyam Benegal gave him a chance in his film Junoon, released in 1978, which became his debut film. Further, he acted in more than 40 Hindi films.

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.

Ravi Kale is an Indian actor known for acting in Telugu, Kannada, Marathi and Bollywood movies. He rose to fame with movies like Sarkar (where he played Amitabh Bachchan’s right-hand man), Agyaat, Mylari etc. He also starred in AMR Ramesh’s movie Cyanide, where he was the mastermind behind Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. The film showcased the aftermath of Rajiv Gandhi’s murder. He also played the role of a Naxalite in the movie Red Blood. Due to his acting abilities, he has made his presence known in both Malayalam and Marathi cinema.

Sadhu Kokila is a Kannada actor who primarily works on comedy roles. He is also a director and music composer. Rakta Kanneeru, Om and Shhh are some of the movies that he directed and also acted. The Vijay starrer Devru was also directed by him.
Born on 24th March, 1966, Sadhu Kokila, also known as Kokila Sadhu, hails from a family of musically inclined people. His father was a violinist in a music group of Karnataka Police Department. His sister and mother are singers. Layendra, Kokila’s brother, is also an actor. Kokila pursued his schooling at St. Joseph’s Indian High School in Bangalore. Kannada star Upendra provided him with the name Sadhu Kokila. 
Kokila kickstarted his career in the film industry as a musician and eventually he was referred to Kasturi Shankar, another musician. He has the reputation of being one of the swiftest keyboard players in India. Kokila has helmed direction for 12 Kannada flicks, and 6 of them were remakes. His directorial venture Anarkali was dropped midway. 
Kokila expresses that audiences and the media question whether his films are a remake or original. He had made up his mind not to endeavor in remakes. He feels that composing music requires a lot of creativity. As far as his comedy stint is concerned, he is loved by the audience. And about acting he feels that it is exciting. Sadhu Kokila has received awards for music direction twice. 
As far as remakes are concerned Kokila is of the view that there are creative limitations. But originals are enjoyable both in the sense of creativity and visualization. Sadhu Kokila along with Doddanna make a good pair for situation comedies. Kokila is compared with Johnny Lever of Bollwyood,for his comedy skills. 
On his personal front, Kokila is wedded to Saleena. They are blessed with two sons. 

Rajeev is a popular Tamil actor, who had been working in Tamil and Malayalam films. He was born in Madurai as Rajashekar to Balasubramanya Mudaliyar and Rajeshwari Ammal. His father was a government employee working in Indian Telephone Industries in Bangalore. Rajeev did his schooling in Bangalore ITI Vidya Mandir. Rajeev was interested in acting during his school days. After graduating, he started to seek opportunities in cinema. In his initial stages, he was rejected by many of the filmmakers.