A royal root of Kannada filmdom

When the imposing Amba Vilas Palace here was zeroed in on as the venue for the closing ceremony of Bengaluru International Film Festival (Biffes-2016), it was not the palatial backdrop that served as a trigger.

According to Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy Chairman S V Rajendra Singh Babu, it was Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar, who ruled the princely Mysore State (later Mysuru) between 1799 and 1868, who initiated the birth of films.

“Wadiyar had bought a camera from abroad, shot a few sequences and screened them for a select audience,” said Babu, narrating the birth of films in Mysuru Palace then.

The decision to hold the event here was to pay tributes to the erstwhile ruler, said Babu. On extending the festival to Mysuru from this year, Babu said, “Beginning from the year 1944, when Mysuru was a hub of films, most of the films were shot in studios like Navajyothi and Premier that cease to exist now. For 25 to 30 years, Premier was the abode of shooting and the films still in the list of golden era of Kannada filmdom were shot here.

Mysuru fest
It’s time to bring back the past glory, and Mysuru International Film Festival is on the anvil in future. The festival will be blended with the annual Naada Habba, Mysuru Dasara, to showcase the culture and tradition of the land, he added.