By S.N. Venkatnag Sobers
Namma Mysuru, with a vast cultural diversity, has been contributing to Kannada Film Industry since decades. Many actors, directors and technicians from our city have scaled great heights and are rated among the best in the country. Mysuru is also home for many young talented artistes, who have been making a mark for themselves in the industry. This Weekend Star Supplement introduces the rising stars from the cultural capital of Karnataka.
The Kannada Film Industry or Sandalwood is also referred to as Chandanavana. In 1934, the first Kannada talkie, Sati Sulochana, appeared in theatres followed by Bhakta Dhruva. Karnataka has been home for many directors and actors who have made a mark for themselves in Indian Cinema.
Mysuru, the heritage city, which is also known for its cultural diversity, has to its credit some of the prominent personalities who are considered to be among the greatest. Be it Kanagal Prabhakar Shastry, Puttanna Kanagal, K.S. Ashwath, K.M. Rathnakar, Mysore Lokesh, Vishnuvardhan, Ambarish, Mandya Ramesh, Yash and Dhananjaya — they have all created a fan-base for themselves.
In the past couple of years, young actors, directors, musicians from Mysuru have been making a name for themselves.
Anup Bhandari, who came with a bang with his directorial debut Rangitharanga has been working on his next venture Rajaratha, a bi-lingual movie (Kannada and Telugu) starring his younger brother Nirup Bhandari and Avantika Shetty in the lead role. This pair was a hit in Rangitharanga. Anup’s popularity is such that he would be soon seen directing ‘Power Star’ Puneeth Rajkumar.
Apart from these, there are also other rising stars such as Akshatha Pandavapura, who was recently adjudged as the Best Supporting Actress for her role in the movie ‘Pallata’ directed by our city’s own S.P. Raghu. Playback singer Sangeetha Ravindranath was also in the news for winning the Best Female Playback Singer Award this year.
Another talented actor Poornachandra, who hails from Mysuru, has been making slow but steady inroads into the industry. The other talented artistes, who have been making sound in the industry include singers Udith Haritas, Ananya Bhat and Sudhir (Rangavalli). In fact, Sudhir was seen in the recently released Chakravarthy.
Meet city’s young artistes, who have been working towards bringing out the best in them to entertain the mass.
UDITH HARITAS
One of the young artistes, who has been making a name for himself, is Udith Haritas. This young and energetic, smart looking guy, is multi-talented when it comes to being an actor, music composer and singer as well.
Having born in a family where both parents are into literature and theatre, Udith was drawn into the creative field naturally. Udith’s father Mayasandra Krishna Prasad is one of the senior artistes in Rangayana and mother Annapoorna teaches Kannada at Vani Vilas High School.
As a child, he learnt Hindustani music from Pt. Veerabhadraiah Hiremath and Karnatak Music, Light Music and Gamaka from Shubha in Mysuru. In fact, Udith learnt guitar from Venugopala Krishnan at the VGK Music Academy in Mysuru.
Udith was also part of a Rock Band called ‘1980s’ which performs in city. Though the band still exists, Udith has not been able to take part actively. He has also acted in few plays as a child artiste in plays staged by Rangayana.
Udith, who has acted and composed music for amateur theatre groups in Mysuru, got instant fame through ‘Nee Thoreda Galigeyali,’ the duet song which he sang along with Ananya Bhat, another talented singer from Mysuru. This apart, he was also lauded for his work in movies like ‘Rocket’ and ‘Sepai.’
Currently, Udith has been working on few music singles and for a web series called ‘The Middle Child of History’ by Rakshith Shetty. He has also set up his new recording studio known as ‘Ferrotone Records’ from where hopes to give chance to talented youngsters and bring in artistes who have not yet been featured in the mainstream.
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