Sandalwood debuted in 1934 with Sati Sulochana, Kannada’s first talkie. Since then, Kannada movies have become synonymous with Indian cinema. Kannada Cinema has produced many blockbuster hits with the changing trends in cinema. Kannada movies eventually became part of our everyday lives. Let’s take a look at the 10 Best Kannada movies of all time.
1. Mungaru Male: is a romantic drama film starring Ganesh and Pooja Gandhi, the movie came into theatres in 2006, directed by Yogaraj Bhat. This was the first movie in India to run in theatres for one complete year and the movie holds the record for the longest-running film.
2. Dia: is a romantic love story, which ends in a tragedy. The story revolves around Dia, an introverted girl who falls in love with her senior, Rohit, but she fails to express her love. Rohit moves out of the country for work. They both meet each in Mumbai after 3 years, the rest that happened is a tragedy. The movie was a massive hit and won many awards in the categories- Of Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and many more.
3. Love Mocktail: is a 2020 love drama, the plot of the story is the quest of Aadi, the hero of the movie, to find true love. The movie was written and directed by Darling Krishna, Starring Darling Krishna, Milana Nagaraj, and Amrutha Iyengar. The movie turned out to be the best of 2020 and received many positive comments.
4. Raajakumara: is the Late Puneet Rajkumar’s blockbuster hit. The gross collection of the movie was around 100 crores. The movie is an action drama film written and directed by Santhosh Ananddram. The movie was released in 2017 and hit a huge box office collection. The movie was dubbed Daring Raajakumara in Hindi.
5. Ondu Motteya Kathe: is a romantic-comedy film starring Raj B. Shetty, Usha Bhandary, Amrutha Nail, and Deepak Rai Panaje. The movie was written and directed by Raj B. Shetty, with an estimated budget of 30 lakhs. It won the Filmfare Award for the Best Film and received many positive reviews. The Hindu newspaper called it ‘Kannada Film of the Year’.
6. Jogi: is a 2005 action film, prominent for its technical prowess and the usage of dialogues and lyrics. The movie completed 100 days in more than 61 theatres. The box-office collection was around 14-30 crores and the movie was remade into Tamil and Telegu.
7. Kasturi Nivasa: is a 1971 film starring Rajkumar, K. S. Ashwathi, and Aarathi. The film turned out to be a huge success, which made Sivaji Ganesan purchase the remake rights worth 2 lakhs. The movie was remade into Tamil as Avandhan Manidhan, directed by A.C. Tirulokchandar.
8. Kurukshetra: is a mythological war film directed by Naganna, the story of the movie is based on the Indian epic Mahabharata. The story was written and produced by Munirathna. The budget of the movie was 50 crores, and it collected 90 crores at the box office.
9. Bangarada Manushya: is a movie based on T.K. Rama Rao’s novel. The movie was released in the year 1972 starring Rajkumar and Bharathi. The movie is based on a social drama and the movie completed one year in many theaters. The movie collected 2.5 crores at the box office and turned out to be the highest-grossing movie at that time.
10. KGF: is a movie inspired by the real-life event of Thangam, a criminal from Karnataka who was encountered by the police in 1997. The film starred Yash, Srinidhi Shetty, Sanjay Dutt, and many prominent actors. The movie set a record for the highest opening and earned 552 crores globally, beating the record of Baahubali.
Also read: 7 Most Powerful Dialogues from K.G.F Chapter 2
This was our list of best Kannada movies of all time.