He was the first Kannada producer to bring Kishore Kumar to the Kannada film industry, whose song “Aadu Aata Aadu’ became a chartbuster.
A small-made man in his 20s drew the attention of Kannada moviegoers in 1964, in a comic role of a prince in Veera Sankalpa . He was introduced in the film as Bungle Shama Rao Dwarakanath by his maternal uncle Hunsur Krishnamurthy, one of the pioneers of Kannada cinema. BS Dwarakanath is none other than Dwarakeesh, who carved a niche for himself 53 years ago.
Born on August 19, 1942 Dwarakeesh who supported Kannada cinema like a pillar with his acting, direction and production, will step in to his 75th year. It was CV Shivashankar who rechristened Dwarakanath Dwarakeesh. The audience loved every bit of his jerky gait, pout and his trade mark guffaw.
“I was in love with cinema. During the 60s, Charlie Chaplin was a great influence on the comedians of the Indian cinema. I was an innocent boy with the only aim of acting in films. I had no role models. It is probably my good fortune as I ended up being an actor with my own style,” says Dwarakeesh.
Dwarakeesh in his five-decade career, has so far acted in 175 films, directed over 20 films, besides producing as many as 50. Mamateya Bandhana (1966) was his first production, and Chowka released in 2017, is his latest one.
It will not be an exaggeration if he is described as a man who elevated the comedian status to that of a leading man. Though there were other comedians like Narasimhararju and Guggu, who were ruling the comedy scene in Kannada cinema at that time, Dwarakeesh capitalised on his short stature to build special characters around his own personality.
He has the credit of introducing westerns to the Kannada film audience. In the films he produced, when the titles rolled, he would be seen roaring in the logo like the lion in MGM’s logo.
He has acted with almost all the stars and his association with Dr Rajkumar and Dr Vishnuvardhan deserves a glorious chapter in Kannada cinema. His close association with Vishnuvardhan resulted in making the duo popular, and were fondly termed as Kalla-Kulla .
He enjoys the credit of introducing many new talents such as Shruthi, Sunil and Vinod Raj. He has also been instrumental in introducing the renowned director Siddalingaiah, who made films such as Mayor Muttanna starring Rajkumar, Bhootayyana Maga Ayyu , starring Vishnuvardhan and others. As a producer too he set new trends.
His Aptamitra , starring Vishnuvardhan released in 2004, is said to be the first Kannada cinema to celebrate screening for one year in two theatres and first one to complete one year of screening with four shows a day. It also bagged almost all the awards of that year.
His first landmark production is Mayor Muttanna starring Rajkumar and Bharati. It was a box office hit and he hasn’t looked back ever since.
He started directing films in 1985 with Nee Bareda Kadambari starring Vishnuvardhan and Bhavya and went on to direct films for other producers too.
However, there was a bad patch in his career and at one point the actor was written off by the Kannada film industry.
Yet, undeterred by his failure, he continued to make films.
It was Aptamitra, directed by P Vasu, a remake of the Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu which gave him rebirth. “Only two people in the film industry at the age of 62 went through a lot of trouble in their life. One is Amitabh Bachchan and the other is me,” beams the septuagenarian.
Aptamithra saved his life and according to industry sources, the film made around ₹10 crore in just 30 weeks of screening in 2004.
Dwarakeesh is criticised for ushering in the remake culture to Kannada cinema. “No one speaks about the original films and experiments I made, when the industry was struggling. I brought only the good from other languages, not the low quality content that is detrimental to the taste of people. Aptamitra is a testimony for my conviction,” he asserts.
Ask him if he is still interested in directing and pat comes the reply, “No”. He then points at his two sons and adds, “They will direct. I will offer suggestions and continue to act.”
Even now, Dwarakeesh has a sharp observation. “Now, the number of films have increased, but not the success rate. I am happy with the new experiments made by directors like Yogaraj Bhat, Suri, Pawan Kumar, Raam Reddy and others.” he signs off.
