Book released on Tulu film industry

Mangaluru: ‘Tulu Simhavalokana,’ authored and published by journalist Jagannath Shetty Bala, is the most definitive and comprehensive documentation of myriad facts on the fledgling Tulu film industry. Alva’s Education Foundation chairman Dr M Mohan Alva released the book here on Sunday. The book offers a snapshot of the industry that saw the first Tulu film ‘Yenna Tangadi’ being released in 1971, to the 86th film, ‘Ambar Caterers,’ that will be released later this month.

Incidentally, it was his passion to pen articles on Tulu films during his earlier stint with ‘Mungaru’ under Vadarse Raghuram Shetty, that spurred Jagannath Shetty, popularly referred to by his peers as ‘Bala,’ to come up with this 100-page effort. “I spent a better part of the last 30-months in researching and compiling information on Tulu films, starting from ‘Yenna Tangadi,’ and ending with ‘Ambar Caterers’, to write the book, which has also been a lifetime passion and journey,” he said.

While Tulu films during his stint at ‘Mungaru’ were few and far between, the film industry got a major fillip with the release of Vijaykumar Kodialbail’s hit ‘Oriyardori Asal’ in 2011. “The industry has not looked backed since ‘Oriyardori Asal’,” Bala said.

The book has interesting vignettes in that it has chronicled the role of elected representatives who either played a role in the films or had a role – directly or otherwise— in the production of Tulu films. Thus there is mention of MLAs Lokayya Shetty, K Abhayachandra Jain, Shakuntala T Shetty, Amarnath Shetty as actors and MLA Vasanth Bangera and former minister B Nagaraj Shetty as producers. Nagaraj Shetty produced the film Kadala Mage, while Bangera produced ‘Sangama Sakshi’.


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