The decade-long wait for a comprehensive history of the eight-decade-old history of Kannada cinema is finally over. On Saturday, 13 years after an earlier edition was banned, a revised edition of Kannada Chalanachitra Itihasa will hit the stands. The 1,800-page, two-volume work on the history of Kannada cinema was revised by a committee headed by writer Baragur Ramachandrappa.
The 1,600-page two volumes on the history of Kannada cinema, which was a joint effort of the Kannada University, KFCC and Karnataka government, was withdrawn from public circulation soon after its release, following a controversy way back in 2002.
It was alleged that apart from factual errors, there were uncharitable comments about some of the leading personalities of the Kannada film industry in it. In 2012, the KFCC had decided to breathe in new life into the work by carrying out “corrections” and deleting “unwanted” comments.
Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Baragur Ramachandrappa said the earlier two parts — Chitra Sampada and Prathiba Sampada — have been combined in one volume in the revised edition.
The initiative was aimed at documenting the history of Kannada cinema, “authentically”, without hurting anybody’s sentiments and making the work available to the readers who had been waiting for it, Mr. Baragur clarified.
This voluminous work will be released by the Minister for Information Roshan Baig at a Gandhi Bhavan, Kumara Park, on Saturday.
