Kashinath (actor)

Kashinath is an actor and a director in the Kannada film Industry in India, generally known in the industry as a trend setter. He probably started the trend of acting, directing, music directing and the producing of films. He stunned not just the film industry but also the audience through the success of films, because of his unconventional (some would even tag it 'weird') looks, dialogue delivery and style of movie making (hard to find a citation for this but most people in the industry accept this when interviewed). Not only did he make popular movies but he also opened doors for other promising directors like Upendra, Manohar and Sunil Kumar Desai. He is known for giving chances to youngsters who have made names in Kannada Film Industry and beyond. He is known to have an exceptional eye for talent, a trait acknowledged by his well established disciples (Upendra, Manohar, Sunil Kumar Desai to name a few).
His films generally touched subjects which were often regarded as taboo in the Indian society and thus attracted the tag of being vulgar by some critics; In fact, most people associate "double meaning" with Kashinath and many even go to the extent of attributing the decline of Kannada Film quality to him. Despite the criticisms his films have influenced the society as well as the industry. Some of his movie dialogues have entered common lingo; for example the extremely popular phrase of "Mangalooru Manjunatha" (from the film 'Love Madi Nodu'). He directed, produced, and acted in many well known films such as Anubhava, Anantana Avantara, Avale Nanna Hendthi and Hendathi Andhray Haygirabeku. The concept of his film Ajagajaanthara (1991) was also seen in Hindi movie Judaai (1997) starring Anil Kapoor, Sridevi and Urmila Matondkar. His film Avale Nanna Hendthi (1988) was remade in Hindi as Jawani Zindabad (1997) starring Aamir Khan and Farah.

Being studious and inclined to science, as his uncle was scientist in USA, he earned his science graduate degree from Vijaya College, Bangalore. During his college days, due to his fair look, he used to get female characters from Indian mythology based plays. He got exposed to film making by joining troupe called Asima along with contemporary film makers such as Suresh Hubalikar. His first attempt with film making was short film called "Slip", which was appreciated by British film critic among all films presented in Bal-bhavan, Cubban Park in Bangalore. He started his film journey as a director with the movie Aparoopada Athitigalu in the year 1975. He borrowed money from his business man father to produce that movie, which was comedy and was a successful movie as well. His second movie was a suspense thriller Aparichita in the year 1978 which starred well known actors like Suresh Heblikar, Sunderkrishns Urs and others, was also successful. This movie was trend setter movie of the Kannada film industry. He directed the same movie in Hindi titled Be-Shaque starring Mithun Chakraborty. He went on direct 16 movies of varied genres, which were all very successful at the box-office. He first acted in the movie Anubhava, along with debutantes Abinaya and Umashree in the year 1984. The popular song in the movie hodeya doora o jothegara was written by debutanate V. Manohar who later turned to be successful Music director in Kannda Film Industray. Anubhava was remade in Hindi as Anubhav under his direction. Anubhava, was also released three times and was well received each time and second release lasted for 100 days. He also acted in a movie Avale Nanna Hendthi along with Kannada film industry's top actress Bhavya and Tara, in 1988. This movie which touched the prevalent social issue of dowry burning was a big hit. He went to direct comedies like Avane Nanna Ganda and Manmatharaja in 1989, Chapalachennigaraaya in 1990, shhh directed by Upendra and Hello Yama in 1993. He has acted in more than 40 movies in his career. He has directed 2 Hindi movies and several Telugu movies as well. He was one of the popular heroes of 80s in the Kannada Film Industry.

Such was the influence of Kashinath in the Kannada Film Industry that the decade of 1980s is often referred to as Kashinath's yuga (period) as all the hit films given by him are of the 1980s. Kashinath also made many hit movies with Upendra as his assistant director. Upendra himself acknowledges Kashinath as his 'Guru' (Master) and considers working with Kashinath as 'Gurukula' (University) [(Check Hejje Guruthu, produced by TV9 featuring either Kashinath or Upendra/Uppi)].

His recent movie is 12 AM Madyaratri( August 2012) along with his son Abhimanyu( Alok)

He has an aspiration of life time of directing an English film with universal theme/philosophy. He is confident of winning the Academy award for his English film.

No. of films produced: 11- Kannada, 1-Hindi, 1-Telugu (Total-13)

The following is the filmography of Kashinath.

No.	Year	Film	Co-actors	Director(s)	Notes	Family Safety
	1982	Amara Madhura Prema	Suresh Heblikar, Shoba	Ramdas Naidu	Music L Vaidyanadhan
1.	1984	Anubhava	Abhinaya, Umashri	Kashinath
2.	1987	Anaamika	Abhinaya, Swathi	Kashinath
3.	1988	Avale Nanna Hendthi	Bhavya, Thara	S.Umesh
4.	1988	Mithileya Seetheyaru		Ravi Poojar	Along with Vishnuvardhan, Shankar Nag
5.	1989	Anantana Avantara	Anjali	Kashinath	Producer
6.	1989	Adrushta Rekhe	Amruta	Renuka Sharma
7.	1989	Thayigobba Tharle Maga	Chandrika, Pramila josai	Om Saiprakash
8.	1989	Avane Nanna Ganda	Sudharani, Vanitha Vasu	S. Umesh
9.	1989	Preyasi Preethisu	Sagarika	B. Mallesh
10.	1989	Love Madi Nodu	Srilatha	Subramanya	Along with Master Manjunath
11.	1989	Manmatha Raja	Sudharani	Om Saiprakash	Along with Jaggesh
12.	1989	Sura Sundaranga	Thara, Kavya, Abhinaya, Sarala.	Nagabharana
13.	1989	Singari Bangari	Kavya	Chandrahasa
15.	1990	Kaliyuga Krishna	Amrutha, Thara	Sukumara Perwodi
16.	1990	Poli kitti	Manjula Sharma	K.V.Jayaram
17.	1990	Chapala Chennigaraya	Vanithavasu, Kalpana, Abhinaya.,	Bhargava
18.	1990	Kempu Surya	Suman Ranganathan, Amrutha	AT Raghu	Produced by M P Shankar
19.	1991	Ajagajantara	Anjana, Sriraksha	Kashinath
20.	1992	Athi Madura Anuraga	Panchami, Vathsala	P.H. Vishwanath
21.	1993	Love Training	Thara, Abhinaya, Rupa, Anjali.	B Ramamurthy
22.	1993	Aatanka	Anjana, Arathi	Om Sai Prakash	Music Hamsalekha
23.	1993	Shhh!		Upendra
24.	1995	Hendathi Endare Heegirabeku	Akshatha	Kashinath
25.	1996	Bangarada Mane	Sithara, Hema, Padmavasanthi,	Bhargava
26.	1997	Baduku Jatakabandi	Swetha, Pooja, Roopika, Silk Smitha	S. Umesha
28.	1998	Hello Yama	Bhavyashree Rai, Ramya,	A.R.Babu
29.	1998	Chorguru Chandala Sishya	Charulatha	A.R.Babu	Music by Sadhu Kokila
30.	1999	Rambe Urvashi Menake	Akila, Madura, Nisha, Ramya	Arjun
31.	1999	Meese Hotta Gandasige Demandappu Demandu	Vidyasri	Kashinath	Singer
32.	2000	Sundara Neenu Sundari Naanu	Ruchita Prasad	Anil Baindoor
33.	2000	Mava Mava Maduve Maado	Archana	Arjun
34.	2004	Naari Munidare Gandu Parari	Taara	G K M Raju
35.	2004	Aha Nanna Tangi Maduve	Anu Prabhakar	Kashinath
36.	2004	Super Aliya		Kashinath
37.	2005	3Ka (Moorkha)	Namratha	A.N.Jayaramaiah
38.	2006	Bitti Thaali Gatti Mela	Madhuri	Rajesh Kumar	Shivakumar, Lohithaswa
39.	2007	Appachchi	Arpitha, Julie	Kashinath	Singer
40.	2012	12AM Madhyarathri	Abhimanyu, Alok Kashinath	Prabhakar	Along with His Son
41.	2016	Zoom	Ganesh, Radhika Pandit	Prashant Raj

Only Direction

Aparichita was remade in Hindi as Be-Shaque. Anubhava (film) was remade in Hindi as Anubhav and in Malayalam as Aadhyate Anubhavam. Avale Nanna Hendthi was remade in Hindi as Jawani Zindabad . The Concept of Ajagajaanthara was seen in the Hindi movie Judaai.