Kashinath

Kashinatha Hathwara (8 May 1951 – 18 January 2018) was an Indian actor and filmmaker who primarily worked in Kannada films.

He worked on Hindi and Malayalam movies.

With a career spanning over three decades, Kashinath worked in over 40 films carving a Niche for himself in comedy genre.

He is credited for introducing new talents such as actor Upendra, musician V. Manohar and director Sunil Kumar Desai,Bank Janardhan alongside many other technicians who went on to become successful in Kannada film industry.

Kashinath was born on 8 May 1951 into a middle-class family in Markod, a village near Kundapura, Udupi District.

His father G. Vasudeva Rao was a businessman and a trader and mother Saraswathi a homemaker.

He was the second son of his parents followed by his elder brother Sathyanarayana and his younger brothers are Dattatreya, Ravi, and Umapathi along with their younger sister Gayathri.

He spent his childhood in his birthplace and moved to Bangalore with his father.

During his graduation in Bangalore, Kashinath made a short film titled Slip, "in the year 1971 or 1972".

This encouraged him to enroll himself into a filmmaking troupe called "Aseema" along with contemporary filmmaker-actor and his long acquaintance, Suresh Heblikar.

Making his debut as a director through the comedy-drama film Aparoopada Athithigalu (1976), Kashinath came into limelight with the suspense thriller Aparichita (1978).

In 1976, he borrowed money from his father and co-produced with P.R. Ramadas for his directorial debut Aparoopada Athitigalu, a comedy-drama.

His second directorial film Aparichita in 1978 was a suspense thriller starring Suresh Heblikar, M. V. Vasudeva Rao, Sundar Krishna Urs and Shoba brought him wide appreciation and recognition.

The film paved the way for many other thriller films and was considered to be the "trendsetter" in Kannada cinema.

This back to back success made Kashinath one of the most sought-after actors in the 1980s era.

The success of the project made him direct its Hindi version titled as Be-Shaque in 1981, starring Mithun Chakraborty.

He made his acting debut through the successful film Anubhava (1984).

After a brief hiatus, in 1984, he took up acting career by casting himself in the lead role for the film Anubhava.

The film was widely acclaimed and was considered bold during its time of release.

The film had its music composed by L. Vaidyanathan with whom he shared a long-lasting rapport and also introduced lyricist-music director V. Manohar through the song "Hodeya Doora O Jothegara".

The same film was remade and directed by him in Hindi as Anubhav (1986), making his Bollywood entry.

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.

He was more popular for his double entendre dialogues in his films to the extent that most associated the term "double meaning" with Kashinath and many went to the extent of attributing the decline of Kannada films quality to him.

Despite the criticisms faced, 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 Maadi Nodu).

The huge success of the film got him the offer to direct its Hindi remake titled as Anubhav (1986) starring Shekhar Suman and Padmini Kolhapure.

In Malayalam, he directed the same film, titled as Aadhyate Anubhavam (1987).

The film found multiple time releases and reached the classic status.

His third directorial film Anamika (1987) could not repeat the success of his previous film.

Following this, he took up acting assignments offered by other directors and starred in some successful films such as Mithileya Seetheyaru (1988), Avale Nanna Hendthi (1988), Sura Sundaranga (1989), Manmatha Raja (1989) and Avane Nanna Ganda (1989).

His socially entertaining romantic films such as Avale Nanna Hendthi (1988) opposite Bhavya, Avane Nanna Ganda (1989) co-starring Sudharani and Chapala Chennigaraya (1990) opposite Kalpana were both commercial and critical success.

Some of his other successful films include Anantana Avantara (1989), Avale Nanna Hendthi (1988), Ajagajantara (1991) and Hendathi Endare Heegarabeku (1995).

However, his next directed film Anantana Avantara (1989) was met with high popularity and success.

In the 1990s, he worked with many popular directors such as H. R. Bhargava, Om Sai Prakash, P. H. Vishwanath, B. Ramamurthy, T. S. Nagabharana and Upendra.

In 1991, he co-produced, directed and acted in the film Ajagajantara.

The film costarred Anjana and Srilekha and had music composed by Hamsalekha with the lyrics written by two of his proteges, Upendra and V. Manohar.

The comedy-drama film met with commercial success and the same screenplay was adapted in the 1997 released Hindi film Judaai, starring Anil Kapoor, Sridevi and Urmila Matondkar.

After this, barring few films, many films directed, produced or acted by him were commercial failures.

Kashinath made a prominent return when he was cast as an elderly jail inmate who gets falsely accused in his daughter's death in Tharun Sudhir's Chowka (2017).

His last film performance before his death was Olu Muniswamy which was released in 2018.