With the death of the ‘Rebel Star’, the triumvirate of Kannada cinema — Rajkumar, Vishnuvardhan and Ambareesh — are all gone. After the death of Rajkumar, the Kannada film industry had increasingly turned to Ambareesh at all moments of crises. He had filled a vacuum left by Rajkumar, the “Annavru” of the industry, and was the troubleshooter on many occasions.
Everyone connected to Kannada films used to seek his help whenever they were in trouble, be it financial or familial dispute. But he was always humble about his role. He once said: “Don’t compare me with Annavru. My age does not permit me to take leadership of the film industry. I will do my best whenever somebody comes with a problem.”
Brokering peace
Stars of the present time, including Darshan, Sudeep, Puneet Rajkumar, Shivarajkumar, and Yash, looked up to Ambareesh during crisis. Besides issues pertaining to Kannada cinema — for instance, release of too many other language films into Karnataka — Ambareesh used to also settle some of the personal issues, which would have been blown out of proportion but for his intervention. His relation with distribution, exhibition and production sectors was such, as he would sort out any issue.
Actor K. Chiranjeevi at Sree Kanteerava Stadium, as Sumalatha Ambareesh looks on.
The Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce, umbrella body of Kannada cinema, used to look up to him when they could not sort out problems. He had taken a lead role in keeping peace and ensuring everything went smoothly when his friend and star Vishnuvardhan passed away.
Ambareesh had also tried to intervene when actor Sruthi Hariharan accused co-star Arjun Sarja of sexual misconduct . Refusing to be judgmental, he just appealed to both of them to sort out the issue and said it was indeed beyond the purview of the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce.
“He tried to unite everyone and would always be there in times of crisis,” said Rockline Venkatesh.
People in the industry also remember him as a man who was generous to a fault. “There was no incident of people returning empty-handed from his doorstep,” recalled filmmaker Bhargava.
People queuing up to have a last glimpse of actor M.H. Ambareesh
Ambareesh was known in cine circles for the way he had helped his co-stars, including Tiger Prabhakar, Shakti Prasad (father of Arjun Sarja), Sudheer, and Jaggesh.
Only people close to Ambareesh knew that he had also helped Amitabh Bachchan during the Miss India competition conducted by his ABCL in Bengaluru.
