| V. Ravichandran ವಿ. ರವಿಚಂದ್ರನ್ |
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| Born | May 30, 1961 Bangalore, India |
| Other names | Ravichandran, Crazy Star, Showman, Kanasugara |
V. Ravichandran (Kannada: ವಿ. ರವಿಚಂದ್ರನ್) is an actor, director, producer, music director, Editor and lyricist in the Kannada film industry. He is the son of film producer N. Veeraswamy. As producer, Ravichandran continues to run his father's production house, Sri Eswari Productions. He is popularly known as Crazy Star Ravichandran.
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Ravichandran started his film career in the early 80's and acted in many movies produced by his father and grandfather along with well-known actors of the Kannada industry, including Ambarish, Prabhakar and Rajesh. Ravichandran's initial movies were box-office hits. His major commercial success as a leading actor prior from Premaloka, a comedy starring Juhi Chawla in the female lead role. Post-Premaloka, Ravichandran starred in several hits, most notably Ranadheera (which was a remake of Subhash Ghai's Hero), Anjada Gandu, Yuddha Kaanda, Ramachari, Halli Meshtru, Gadibidi Ganda, Annayya, SIPAAYI, Yaare Neenu Cheluve, Mangalyam Tantunanena, Meshtru Gadibidi Gandu and Preethsod Tappa.
His role as a mentally challenged adult in Ramachari won him critical praise and was featured at the Ontario Film Festival. He has stuck to mostly stereotyped roles: a police officer (Shanti Kranti and Abhimanyu), lover (Premaloka, Anjada Gandu, and Preethsod Tappa), pop singer (Yuga Purusha, and Gadibidi Ganda), rustic SIPAAYI, Halli Meshtru, and Malla), and lawyer (Yudha Kaanda). He continues to act and has a few projects awaiting release.
He persuaded Chiranjeevi to play a guest role in SIPAAYI. He introduced Juhi Chawla in his 1987 movie Premaloka before she showed up in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988). Poonam Dhillon paired with Ravichandran in Yuddha Kaanda.
Ravichandran has introduced a number of actresses from other parts of Indian cinema to Kannada cinema, including Juhi Chawla, Khushbu and Shilpa Shetty.
Ravichandran shot to instant fame when Premaloka, which he produced, directed, and starred in, became one of the landmark films in Kannada film history. It was made with a budget of a crore rupees, the most expensive Kannada film in its time. It starred Juhi Chawla as the female lead.
Premaloka also established Hamsalekha, who would teamed up with Ravichandran for a long period and gave consistently popular music for the next 10 years.
Premaloka broke several records and defined much of Ravichandran's later filmmaking. It set the stage for lavish productions in the Kannada film industry, and inspired a generation of directors. Ravichandran is generally credited with introducing a culture of producing big-budget films in Kannada.
He is known as a non-conformist, and created his own style of filmmaking. Most of his movies show very little influence of other directors except Premaloka, which contains traces of Grease 2. Notable aspects of his filmmaking include a curious combination of close-ups, abrupt fast-cuts, and innovative camera angles. He is renowned in the Kannada film industry for his understanding of the technical aspect of cinema. His movies are lavishly mounted and stand out for superior production values distinguished for cinematography, sound, lighting, and special effects. Even directors of industry learn technical aspects from his film.
A distinct directorial feature is his innovative shooting of songs. Song-picturization in movies Ravichandran has directed often involve elaborate and richly-mounted settings.
Ravichandran initially acted in and directed movies produced by his own banner, Eswari Productions. After Premaloka, he accepted acting offers from other producers. He has worked with leading directors of the Kannada film industry such as S. V. Rajendra Singh Babu and D. Rajendra Babu.
His association with D. Rajendra Babu has resulted in several hits including Naanu Nanna Henthi, Annayya, Ramachari, Yaare Neenu Cheluve and Sriramachandra.
He has also remade a few hit Telugu and Bollywood movies in Kannada.
Ravichandran is close friends with producer Rockline Venkatesh, with whom he worked on Yaare Neenu Cheluve, Nanu Nanna Hendthiru, Preethsod Thappa and Ondagona Baa.
Ravichandran is known to be a perfectionist and artists recall him re-shooting a single scene or sequence until it was perfect. He is known to have shot entire sequences again after the first cuts of the movie failed to satisfy him. However, after a lean patch in the late 90s, Ravichandran is said to have made amends to this and churned out quickies.
Ravichandran is known to produce very expensive movies in an industry that has a limited market. Premaloka was the costliest movie of its time. Although his later films were comparatively less expensive, their budgets exceeded that of other Kannada films by several lakhs of rupees.
In 1991, Ravichandran released [1] Shanti Kranti, the costliest movie ever made in South India till then. Considered his magnum opus, the film was shot over four years with a budget of 40 million rupees, and was simultaneously made in Kannada, Telugu, and Tamil. Shanti Kranti turned out to be a huge failure at the box office.
Ravichandran also released another film the same year. Made with a modest budget, Ramachari became one of the biggest blockbusters of the year.
Ravichandran is credited with "discovering" the talented Hamsalekha. Together, they worked in over 50 films and created several popular numbers. However, the duo parted company after Preethsod Thappa, only to work again in Ondagona Baa, which was a commercial and musical failure. In Hamsalekha's absence, Ravichandran took up the role of a music director and created a few popular tunes in Ekangi and Aham Premasmi. But critics generally consider him an below average music director.He also gets state award as the best musical director.
Ravichandran started his own audio company, Eswari Audio Now it is Eshwari audio Eshwari Entertinments". For his brother's debut movie, Aham Premaasmi, he bypassed the entire music industry and sold the music cassettes through cable operators to beat piracy.And Brought " Digital Greding " Technology to Kannada Film Industry and also brought color technicians from foreign.The whole film based on " Bagavadgita ".
Sl. No. / Film / Year of release / No. of days in theaters nanu Nenu