From 'KGF' to 'The Villain': Top 5 big-budget movies in Sandalwood

The Kannada film industry has a history of more than 85 years. The industry has always made movies with budgets of more than Rs 25 lakh. However, in recent times, there have been movies made of bigger budgets and they have done better than the films from yesteryears, changing the history of Kannada cinema. Apart from films doing good, the number of films released is also high, increasing the overall revenues of Sandalwood. Let’s take a look at five big-budget Kannada films.

‘KGF’ was the biggest movie in the history of Indian cinema, which attracted the whole world’s attention to the Kannada film industry at the end of 2018. The ‘KGF’ franchise is produced by Hombale Films in Kannada with the budget of Rs 80 crore for ‘KGF: Chapter 1’ and Rs 50 crore for ‘KGF: Chapter 2’. ‘KGF: Chapter 1’ was the first Kannada movie to gross Rs 100 crore. Rocking Star Yash and Srinidhi Shetty played the lead roles in the movie, which was directed by Prashanth Neel. After the release of ‘KGF: Chapter 1’ the film earned a lot of praise and attention from the audience, and they cannot wait to watch its upcoming sequel, ‘KGF: Chapter 2’. The filmmakers piqued the interest of the audience by roping in Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt as the villain in the second part of the film. The team has already announced the release date as October 23.

‘Avane Srimannarayana’, starring Rakshit Shetty and Shanvi Srivastava in the lead role, was directed by Sachin Ravi who made his directorial debut with this comic fantasy adventure. It was jointly produced by Pushkara Mallikarjunaiah and HK Prakash. According to sources, the 2019 movie was made with a budget of Rs 80 crore but didn't earn any profits after its release. However, Rakshit Shetty was well appreciated for his acting in the film which also created a record for shooting for more than 200 days in Kannada film industry.

‘Kurukshetra’ was another big-budget mythological film which was produced by Munirathna. The makers never officially announced the budget of the movie, but sources claimed that the 2019 venture was built on the budget of Rs 50 crore. Challenging Star Darshan played the lead role in the film which also starred Ambareesh, V Ravichandran, Arjun Sarja, Sneha, Meghana Raj, Bharathi Vishnuvardhan, Nikhil Gowda, Sonu Sood, Shashikumar and others in major roles.

‘Pailwan’, starring Kiccha Sudeep and Aakanksha Singh in the lead roles, had a Rs 50-crore budget. The 2019 movie was produced by Swapna Krishna and directed by S Krishna. Sudeep played the role of a pailwan in the movie and toned his body for the character. The film was released in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada and Bollywood actor Suniel Shetty made his Kannada debut with this film.

‘The Villain’ was one of the recent multi-star movies released in Kannada starring Kiccha Sudeep and Shivarajkumar in the lead roles. This 2018 film was directed by Prem and produced by CR Manohar. According to sources, the movie was made on a budget of Rs 55 crore, and with this, it joined the list of big-budget films in the Kannada film industry. Even though the movie was a much anticipated one, it didn't do too well at the box office.