Hunsur Krishnamurthy

Hunsur Krishnamurthy Biography

Hunsur Krishnamurthy was a multi-faceted film personality associated with Kannada cinema, known as a director, playwright, actor, producer, lyricist and screenwriter. He made many popular mythological films, mostly featuring Rajkumar in the lead roles such as Satya Harishchandra, Bhakta Kumbara and Babruvahana. His movies have given major breaks to the acting career of Rajkumar. Many of his films met with critical and commercial success and achieved classic status in Kannada cinema. He was a great theatre personality too.

He was born on 9 February 1914 in Hunsur, Kingdom of Mysore. His father worked in PWD department. He completed his school education from Mysore. He worked with Gubbi Veeranna, B R Panthulu and Mohammed Peer, doyens of theatre during his first phase of theater journey. He worked as a playwright for theatre before venturing into movies. Swarga Samrajya is one of this noted plays. He later worked as a scenarist and playwright of Bharat Nataka Company, followed by Bal Gandharva’s theater troupe.

He started his film career as a dialogue writer. He wrote scripts and dialogues of Krishnaleele and Hemareddy Mallamma. He penned lyrics for Kanyadana, Sodari, Devakannika etc. He made his film debut as a director through 1958 film - Shri Krishna Gaarudi. After the success of this mythological movie, he made numerous movies of this genre, featuring Rajkumar in the male lead. The movie also established actor Rajkumar as a star, and he completely dominated the industry for the next two decades.

His 1965 flick Satya Harishchandra received the Best Feature Film in Kannada language in national award section. Same year his film Maduve Madi Nodu earned third best film in Kannada in the National award category. Veera Sindhoora Lakshmana (1977) was also a major success. He gave break to actors M P Shankar and Rajesh to the film industry. Noted film actor and filmmaker Dwarakish is his nephew.

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Updated: April 09, 2016