Dwarakish

Dwarakesh is a popular Kannada producer and comedy actor. Dwarakesh started his production company; "Dwarakesh Chitra" in 1969. His first production was "Mayor Muthanna" with the Kannada cine icon Rajkumar as the hero; which was a silver jubilee hit. Thereafter he produced 47 movies under his banner. He made a dozen movies with Kannada superstar Vishnuvardhan during the 1974-1986 period; most of them being huge hits.

However, since then, he could not get even one hit till Apthamithra (2004) had arrived. True to the movie's name, it turned out to be a friend in need, as it made a huge amount of money at the box office that helped him clear all the debts which he had incurred due to those loss-making movies. It also marked the re-arrival of the successful team of Vishnuvardhan and Dwarakesh and it was late Soundarya's last movie.

Bungle Shama Rao Dwarakanath is well known as Dwarakish to the Kannada cinema industry. He is one of the most famous and greatest comedian, actor, director and producer of Kannada cinema.

Dwarakesh was born on 19th August 1942. Shri Bungle Shama Rao and Smt. Jayamma were his parents. Dwarakesh was born in Hunusur, and grew up in Ittigegud, Mysore. He got his primary education in Sharada Vilas and Banumaiah's school and he passed out of CPC Polytechnic with a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering.

Dwarakish and his brother started an automotive spare parts business called "Bharath Auto Spares". Even today, you can see this shop in Gandhi Square, Mysore. He had a strong urge within him for acting. He always used to ask his maternal uncle, a famous cinema director Hunusur Krishnamurthy, to provide him a chance for acting in movies. A day came in the year 1963 when he made up his mind to quit business and start acting in movies. That was his "Veera Sankalpa"!

Thus, began Dwarakish's movie career at the age of 21 as an actor in the movie "Veera Sankalpa" released in 1963. At the age of 24 Dwarakesh became a producer by producing "Mamatheya Bandhana" in partnership with other producers. On April 26, 1967, Dwarakesh married Smt. Ambuja.

In 1969, Dwarakesh independently produced his first movie "Mayor Muththanna" under the banner of "Dwaraka Films". Dr. Rajkumar and Bharathi played the lead roles in this movie. This movie was a super-hit. After Mayor Muththanna, Dwarakesh gave a series of super-hits to Kannada cinema one after the other in succession for the next two decades. He became the king of Kannada cinema producers.

From the year 1985, Dwarakesh started directing movies, his first direction was "Nee Baredha Kaadambari". Then he went on to direct movies for other producers as well. Behind the camera, Dwarakesh was very successful. As a director, he gave hits like "Nee Baredha Kaadambari", "Dance Raja Dance", "Shruthi", "Shruthi Haakidha Hejje", "Raayaru Bandharu Maavana Manege" and "KilaadigaLu"

Dwarakesh Chitra faced problems due to failure of some movies. Despite failures Dwarakesh did not despair. He continued to make movies introducing new faces to Kannada cinema. He is one of the producers who has brought a lot of new people to cinema. Not only actors and actresses, he has given opportunities to a lot of new directors and other technicians. They all consider him as their "God Father".

Well wishes of all these people and his unwavering dedication to cinema gave Dwarakesh his long-awaited moment of success. Dwarakesh produced "ApthaMitra" in the year 2004.

Apthamitra created records in Kannada cinema. It was the first Kannada movie to celebrate the screening of one year in 2 theaters, Santosh in Bangalore and Ranajith in Mysore. It was the first Kannada movie to successfully complete one year of screening with 4 shows daily. In the history of 52 years of Filmfare awards, this movie bagged all the awards given to a language.

Apthamitra was a magnificent success and it was one of its kind in the world of Kannada cinema. With this success, the King of Kannada cinema producers - Dwarakesh regained his throne in 2005.