Puttanna Kanagal

Shubraveshti Ramaswamiah Seetharama Sharma (1 December 1933 – 5 June 1985), known popularly as S. R. Puttanna Kanagal, was an Indian filmmaker known for his work in Kannada cinema.

He is often considered one of Kannada cinema's most influential filmmakers.

Puttanna Kanagal was born to Ramaswamaiah and Subbamma in Kanagal, a village in the erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore into a poor family.

As he hailed from a poor brahmin family, he had to endure hardships and struggled to get a decent job.

He worked as a teacher, salesman and even as a cleaner.

His job as a publicity boy brought him closer to theatre and subsequently to cinema.

His association with films began when he started working for B. R. Panthulu as an assistant director and also as his driver.

His first film as an assistant director was Rathnagiri Rahasya (1957).

Puttanna married Nagalakshmi at very young age and they had 5 children.

Often credited as a movie-maker much ahead of his times, his first directorial venture was the 1964 Malayalam movie School Master, a remake of his mentor B. R. Panthulu's Kannada classic of the same name.

He then directed another Malayalam movie Poochakkanni (Cat eyed/Hazel eyed lady) based on the Kannada novel Bekkina Kannu by Triveni.

Puttanna's first Kannada film as a director was Bellimoda (Silver Cloud) in 1967.

Starring Kalpana and Kalyan Kumar, this movie was a critical and commercial success.

Legend has it that Puttanna scouted for a week to find the perfect location for the mellifluous song "Moodala Maneyaa".

Belli Moda is credited as the first Kannada movie to be shot exclusively outdoors.

He directed many masterpieces like Gejje Pooje, Sharapanjara, Naagarahaavu etc.

'. His last film was Savira Mettilu, which never released during his lifetime.

He also provided a platform for many actors such as Kalpana, Aarathi, Leelavathi, Jayanthi, Padma Vasanthi, Srinath, Rajinikanth, Vishnuvardhan, Ambareesh, Jai Jagadish, Chandra Shekhar, Gangadhar, Shivaram, Vajramuni, Sridhar, Ramakrishna and Aparna to showcase their talents.

In devotion to Puttanna, Dr.Vishnuvardhan said, "Puttanna Kanagal Sir was the God-sent teacher for me! And I have been made an actor. I am indebted to guru Puttanaji. He used to conceptualize scenes, narrate them to me, inspire me and extract the potential till then unknown to myself. Acting in a single movie under Puttanna's expertise is an experience of a lifetime."

Puttanna introduced most of the actors in the Kannada film industry.

Tamil director Bharathiraja worked under him.

Each of Kanagal's 24 Kannada movies had strong themes filled with unprecedented direction.

He would go on to direct other films such as Kappu Bilupu (1969), Sharapanjara (1971), Naagarahaavu (1972), Edakallu Guddada Mele (1973), Shubhamangala (1975) and Ranganayaki (1981), all of which are seen as milestones in Kannada cinema.

He also directed a handful of films in Malayalam, Tamil Telugu and Hindi languages.

However he fell in love with his protege and leading actress in 1970s Aarathi and they got married during 1976–77.

They had a daughter Yashaswini, who was born in 1978.

He had no work in hand for 14 months starting from late 1980 to mid of 1982.

Srinath whom Puttanna directed in blockbuster films like Shubhamangala and Dharmasere came to his help, and they made Maanasa Sarovara which became an average hit and helped Puttanna bounce back.

However, due to creative differences Puttanna and Aarathi separated in 1981.

In 1981 Puttanna's magnum opus Ranganayaki did not do as well as expected at the box office, even though it gained critical acclaim and later went on to become a cult classic.

In addition to this, separation from Aarathi had impacted his health.

Kanagal died on 5 June 1985 in Bengaluru while shooting Masanada Hoovu.

Starting his career as a publicity boy, Kanagal was drawn into independent filmmaking after a stint in theatre and working with film director and producer B. R. Panthulu as his assistant.

Kanagal's assistants include Tamil directors S. P. Muthuraman, Bharathiraja, and T. S. Nagabharana.

Although a majority of Kanagal's films were on offbeat or taboo subjects, generally women-centric, he endeared himself to both the critics and ordinary film goers alike making "bridge films" between art and commercial cinema.

His film in Kannada, Gejje Pooje, based on a novel of the same name by M. K. Indira is considered a landmark film.

Tamil legendary film maker K. Balachander, winner of the 2010 Dadasaheb Phalke Award had great regard for Puttanna.

In many of his interviews to the media, Balachandar has stated that he considered a much younger, Puttanna Kanagal, a director from Kannada(Karnataka) film industry to be his guru in film making.

An excerpt from one such interview:

In fact Balachander, for most of the remakes of his Tamil films in Kannada (Benkiyalli Aralida Hoo, Mauna Geethe) has gone on to cast many of the talents like Ashwath, Sridhar, Jai Jagadesh, Ramakrishna, Srinath, nurtured in Puttanna's camp.