It is a known fact that the Malayalam film industry has gathered a massive response nationwide for their content and the kind of films they produce. This reason behind their reach is the nativity and the near perfect portrayal of reality in cinema without compromising on the technical quality. On the same lines, the recent few years has seen a leap of change in the Kannada film industry and some of the movies and their makers have been well recognised across the country and even by Tamil cinema fans!

Here we try and analyse the films that shaped the change that we see today in Kannada cinema and also credit the directors responsible for this shift! Moviecrow brings you the list of the most talked about, worth-watching Kannada films, that have hit the screens in the last 7 years and the impact they have created on audiences:

Lucia (2013) (MX Player)

Director Pawan Kumar who had earlier made Lifeu Ishtene, had come out with a brilliant piece of art and a piece of his thoughtful mind in the form of Lucia. Lucia was super creative, made within a shoestring budget and worked unanimously. It was also remade in Tamil as Enakkul Oruvan starring Siddharth. A guy working in a cinema hall has an ordinary life. His life turns upside down when he is tricked into buying a drug that induces dreams and a completely different life in this dream. He sees himself as a superstar in this dreamworld. A crazy idea made into an intense yet emotion filled film! Do not miss!

Ulidavaru Kandanthe (2014) (MX Player)

Alongside Pawan Kumar, another name that deserves a lot of credit in Kannada cinema is Rakshit Shetty. Rakshit who started off as an actor, turned writer - director for the critically acclaimed neo-noir crime drama anthology film Ulidavaru Kandanthe. Set in the coastal areas of Karnataka, the film is rooted and has a lot of native flavours. Ajaneesh Loknath’s music is a big additive and the tiger dance and some of the instruments used in the climax are very famous now! This movie was remade in Tamil as Richie starring Nivin Pauly. Rakshit’s masterpiece Ulidavaru Kandanthe, co-starred Kishore and was about 5 different stories, different perspectives and had a totally new narrative screenplay!

Thithi 2015 (Netflix)

Next in the list is Thithi directed by Raam Reddy. Set in the Indian district of Mandya, three generations of men react to the death of their 101-year old patriarch. With non-professional actors as part of the casting equation, this very rooted, funeral based film won acclaim across many award functions and also bagged a lot of laurels to its name including the National Film Award for best feature film in Kannada! A dramatic comedy with a fine line of emotion.

Rangi Taranga (Jio Cinema)

Rangi Taranga is another well made mystery based thriller. Gautam, a novelist, and his wife, Indhu, visit her ancestral house after she experiences repetitive nightmares. Subsequently, some unnatural occurrences unfold a mystery about Gautam's forgotten past. Director Anup Bhandari assures an engaging yet intriguing experience in the form of this widely appreciated film!

U Turn 2016 (Netflix)

Up next is director Pawan Kumar’s follow up film to Lucia. Titled U-Turn, this Shraddha Srinath starrer was a very unique horror film based on a double road flyover and a very simple traffic rule. The entire film is surrounded by very few characters and majorly takes place at a house and a police station. The staging of the horror scenes seemed perfect and U-Turn was remade in Tamil and Telugu with Samantha reprising Shraddha’s role! A very progressive female oriented attempt that deserves a watch!

Kirik Party 2016 (Voot)

If Premam is to Malayalam cinema, it is Kirik Party to Kannada cinema. Shifting out from the serious genre films, this Rakshit Shetty starrer is all about a college group, their life across the college years, an intense love story, pain, rejuvenation and everything that you would expect from college life! Backed up well by Ajaneesh’s tunes, yet again Rakshit Shetty proves his mettle with this out and out breezy entertainer. This film marked the debut of actress Rashmika Mandanna and also had Samyuktha Hegde in an important role. A package that assures to keep you hooked! Do not miss this Kirik Party!

KGF: Chapter 1 2018 (Amazon Prime)

The big fish of the Kannada film industry! In the history of Kannada cinema, none of the films had the kind of worldwide appeal that KGF had and the impact it created on all audiences across the world made heads turn to Kannada cinema! This Yash starrer directed by Prashanth Neel had all the commercial elements required for a mega budget film like Baahubali. In fact, some say it was even more entertaining than its Telugu competitor! Tracking the life of Rocky Bhai, this KGF was the biggest hit in the history of Kannada cinema and ended up garnering unanimously positive response!

Avane Srimannarayana 2019 (Amazon Prime)

After the success of KGF 1, it was Rakshit Shetty’s turn to do something on a larger scale! He followed Kirik Party up with the fantasy adventure based film Avane Srimannarayana, that was released across 5 different languages and had a period backdrop with a good budget! This film, though slightly on the longer side had a lot of details and some excellent making alongside brilliant set work and costumes! This Rakshit Shetty film was directed by Sachin Ravi and had a good campaign across states. Right from the trailer, to the ‘Hands Up’ track by Ajaneesh Loknath and the talked about stunts, ASN as it is shortly called had both nativity and the content for a mega scale jump for Rakshit! A must watch available on Amazon Prime.

Dia 2020 (Amazon Prime)

The recent sensation is the 2020 release Dia from director KS Ashoka! The one line of the film is about a young, introverted girl's routine life which brightens when she falls for Rohith, one of her fellow students. However, being introverted and trying to express her love becomes the biggest challenge of her life. Another gem of an album from music director Ajaneesh Loknath, Dia seems to have had a terrific response among Amazon Prime users and a lot of Tamil fans have enjoyed the film during these quarantine days and given good reviews!

What’s in line?

KGF: Chapter 2 and the return of Rocky Bhai! Yash’s mega budget sequel is almost ready and may well be the biggest film of 2020! Slated for an October release, things look very exciting for Kannada cinema and fans of good films! This recent shift has definitely proved to be a good one for Kannada industry and we hope to see more such good content films from them in the near future!