TOP FACTS ABOUT KGF CHAPTER 1 YOU MUST KNOW:-
K.G.F: Chapter 1 is a 2018
Indian Kannada-language period action film written and directed by Prashanth Neel, and produced by Vijay
Kiragandur under the banner Hombale films. It is the first instalment in the
two-part series, followed by K.G.F: Chapter 2. The film centres around
Raja Krishnappa Bairya "Rocky", born into poverty, who arrives
in Bombay (now Mumbai) in the 1960s, on a
quest for power and wealth as desired by his dying mother. Involved with the
gold mafia there, he is recruited to kill Garuda, the oppressive
heir-in-waiting, in Kolar Gold Fields. Yash stars as Rocky, while Ramachandra
Raju features as Garuda. Anant Nag narrates
the film while also playing a supporting role alongside Srinidhi Shetty, Vasishta N. Simha, Ayyappa P. Sharma and
Harish Rai. At the 66th National
Film Awards, the film won 2 awards for Best Action and Best
Special Effects.[9] The film is a blockbuster in
Kannada Film Industry as well as Indian Cinema.
The development of the film began in
early 2015 when Neel completed writing the screenplay. However, filming began only two
years later, in March 2017. Majority of the film is set in
Kolar Gold Fields and was filmed on location.Bhuvan Gowda served as the
cinematographer and Shrikanth as the editor. Ravi Basrur scored music for the
soundtrack and the film's background.
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Totals
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Awards won
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21
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Nominations
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25
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Year
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Ceremony
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Category
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Recipient(s) and nominee(s)
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Result
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Ref.
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2019
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Best Film
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K.G.F
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Won
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Best Director
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Won
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Best Actor
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Won
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Best Cinematographer
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Bhuvan Gowda
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Won
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Best Music Director
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Won
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Best Villain
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Ramachandra Raju
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Won
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Best Lyrisist
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Won
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Voice Of The Year
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Won
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2019
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Unifi Media
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Won
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Best Stunt Choreographer
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Vikram More, Anbariv
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Won
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2019
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Best Film
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K.G.F
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Won
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Best Actor
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Won
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Pantaloons style icon male of the year
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Won
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Best Director
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Won
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Best Villain
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Ram
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Nominated
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Best Debut Actress
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Nominated
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Best Supporting Actress
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Archana Jois
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Won
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Best DOP
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Bhuvan Gowda
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Won
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Best Music
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Won
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Best supporting actor - Male
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Won
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Best Playback Singer - Male
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Won
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2019
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K.G.F: Chapter 1
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Won
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Nominated
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Won
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Nominated
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Karnataka State Best Film Awards (2018–19)
1) Best Music Director - Ravi Basrur (Won)
2) Best Art Director - Shiva kumar (Won)
After a North American premiere on 20
December 2018, K.G.F: Chapter 1 was released in Kannada and in
dubbed versions of Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam languages the following day,
and received positive response from audiences. However, critics gave the film
mixed reviews; while they praised the cinematography, art direction and
background score of the film, the screenplay and editing were criticised. The
film performed well commercially and collected ₹76 crore four
days into release, in the process breaking the record for the highest
grossing Kannada film of all time. The movie was released online
by Amazon Prime Video on
5 February 2019 which earlier bought the
digital rights for ₹18 crores and Colors Kannada bought the satellite rights
for an undisclosed record price. The shooting for K.G.F:
Chapter 2 began on 13 March 2019 and the actor Yash shared the picture
on his Instagram account.
Plot[edit]
Journalist Anand Ingalagi's book El-Dorado, that
detailed events at the Kolar Gold Fields between 1951 and
present day, has been banned by the Government of India and all published
copies burnt. However, a television news channel procures a copy and interviews
him circling the events.
Ingalagi narrates that ore of
gold was discovered by commissioned government officials in the southern part
of India's Mysore State (in
present-day Kolar district, Karnataka) in 1951. Raja Krishnappa
"Rocky" Bairya is also born on the day of the discovery in the Mysore region, to a poor and widowed woman.
Discerning the increasing demand for gold by the Cold War belligerents, Suryavardhan, one
of the workers that accompanied the officials, deceitfully sets up a company,
Narachi, in that land, bought for a lease of 99 years on the pretext of
mining limestone. He has five associates, all of who
operate away from KGF: Kamal, the son of a former associate; Rajendra Desai,
the father of Reena, Kamal's fiancé; Andrews, who oversees operations in
the Konkan and Malabar Coasts; Guru Pandian, a powerful
politician and president of the DYSS party; and brother Adheera. However, each
of them has their eyes on the mines. Andrews' underboss Shetty is a gold
smuggler in Bombay, the city that also has another
smuggler, Dubai-based Inayat Khalil's eyes set on.
Rocky arrives in Bombay as a ten-year-old on a quest for power
and wealth as desired by his dying mother and begins to work for Shetty. He
becomes Shetty's right-hand man later and oversees the arrival of gold bars from Africa to the Bombay coast
with an iron fist, and soon rises in strength and power rivalling that of
Shetty's. This attracts Andrews who offers him Bombay in return for
assassinating Garuda, the younger son of Suryavardhan, who was seen to inherit
KGF after his paralysed father's passing. Rocky accepts the offer and heads
to Bangalore where an event is staged for
the purpose. Once there, he witnesses the sheer presence,authority and power
that Garuda commands and has the attempt averted.
In 1978, at the KGF, a bedridden Suryavardhan announces Garuda
as his successor overlooking Adheera, who he wants to serve as the latter's
aide. Garuda's ruthless way of functioning aided by his commander Vanaram comes
to fore. Rocky soon makes his way into KGF evading a unit of henchmen. Once
there, he witnesses the brutality that the slaves are subjected to. Although
apathetic at first, he is moved by a couple of incidents involving a
cold-blooded killing of a mother and son at the hands of an overseer and the
slaves' children hoping that he rises to liberate them. Beginning his attempt
at it and to indicate to Desai and his men through informants, Kulkarni and
Garuda's virtuous brother Virat, that he was alive, as planned, Rocky engages
in a fight with a unit of twenty-one overseers killing each one of them in
order to save a blind slave they were to kill. With the act, Rocky emerges as a
hero in the slaves' eyes. An alerted Vanaram now informs Garuda who heads toward
the mines from his palatial residence. To avert thousands of slaves being
killed due to his fury, Virat smothers father Suryavardhan to death and
sidetracks Garuda, who rushes back home. At the mines, Rocky seizes the
opportunity, conspires and unsuspectingly heads through a tunnel to the site
where Garuda has decided to behead three slaves as offerings to a deity. Upon Garuda's
return to the site and sacrifice of two slaves, a concealed Rocky emerges and
beheads him. The ecstatic slaves accept him as their leader as they cheer him
on. The narrator concludes that Rocky intentionally chose KGF as the site to
assassinate Garuda, in order to earn the will of an "army of people",
the slaves, before he seized KGF to his control but still there are people who
are waiting to acquire the throne and how Rocky will face them as one man army
and why he was given a death warrant by Prime Minister Ramika Sen will be shown
in Chapter 2.
The art director Shivakumar recreated
the Kolar Gold Fields film set of the 80s and VFX was used as an extension.[22]
As of 25 June 2017, the project was
50 per cent complete and production had restarted after sets were rebuilt
following their destruction by heavy rains.[23]
KGF was released in five languages.
It is a complete period drama and is set in the 70s and early 80s. Yash grew
his beard and long hair for his role as Rocky, a slick and a suave person of
the 70s era. Apart from Yash and Srinidhi, some of the Kannada actors
include Ananthnag, Malavika Avinash, Achyuth Kumar, Vasishta N. Simha and B Suresha. Ramya Krishna and Nassar were falsely reported to be a part
of the film.
The teaser of KGF was released on
Yash's birthday, 8 January 2018. The trailer was released on 9 November 2018.
Rocky's character was inspired
by Amitabh Bachchan's Sholay. It had also inspiration
from action movies and western movies like The Good,
the Bad and the Ugly and For a Few Dollars
More.
Main article: K.G.F:
Chapter 1 (soundtrack)
Ravi Basrur composed the soundtrack album
and background score of the film, while Tanishk Bagchi remastered the track "Gali
Gali" from Tridev (1989) for
the film's Hindi version, and D. Imman composed the karaoke versions of
the songs. The audio rights of the film
were purchased by Lahari Music in
Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam for ₹3.6 crore, a record sum for any
South Indian film, except the Hindi version which was bought by T-Series. All the songs were released as
singles, and all versions of the first track of the album "Salaam Rocky
Bhai", was released on 4 December 2018, except the Hindi version which was
released on 7 December 2018.
The complete soundtrack album of the
film was released on 19 December 2018, in all South Indian languages and the
soundtrack for the Hindi version was released on 26 December 2018. The karaoke
versions of the songs were released on 9 January 2019.
The original background score of the
film was released in two volumes. Volume-1 was released on 10 September 2019,
and the Volume-2 was released on 12 October 2019.
K.G.F: Chapter 1 received U/A
certificate from the Central
Board of Film Certification in early December 2018. The distribution rights for the Kannada
version were bought by KRG Studios, a sister company of the film's studio
Hombale Films. While Excel Entertainment and AA Films bought rights for the Hindi
version, the Tamil version's rights were sold to Vishal Film Factory,
Telugu to Vaaraahi Chalana
Chitram and Malayalam to Global United Media. The film was released in the
U.S. and Canada on 20 December 2018 and in India the following day. The day also saw releases in
parts of Africa, Hong Kong and parts of Eastern Europe including Cyprus, the
first in these regions for a Kannada film. It was reported that the film
would be released in 1,800–2,200 screens worldwide, the widest ever release for
a Kannada film. However, it was later reported
that the film was released in 2,460 screens, that included 1,500 for the Hindi
version, 400 each for Kannada and Telugu, 100 for Tamil and 60 for Malayalam. The Hindi-dubbed version of
the film was released in 71 screens in Pakistan on 11 January and became the
first Kannada film to be released there, although Lucia (2013) was screened at film festivals and did not see a
theatrical release in the country.[45][46]
K.G.F: Chapter 1 received
positive response from audiences while critics gave the film mixed reviews. While its
cinematography, art direction,
narration, stunt sequences, background score and acting performances received
acclamation, critics had mixed comments about the screenplay, dialogues and
editing.
Reviewing for Deccan Herald, Vivek M. V. felt that that
the "grandeur" lay in the film's "fantastically gripping
story". He wrote praises of the film's narration, its
"brilliant" editing and "riveting sequences". Sunayana Suresh of The Times of India gave
the film rating of three-and-a-half out of five and wrote that it had a
"fast-paced first half ... but the second half and the climax sets up the
right premise for the second part of the film." She called the screenplay
narrated in a "non-linear" fashion the "most interesting part of
the film". She commended the performance as Yash in that he "lives
his character to the fullest". Troy Ribeiro of News18 echoed
her sentiment and wrote, "Yash's endurance, strife and sincerity ... get
projected as perfunctory" in the context of "tight close-ups and
mid-shots the camera stops us from getting emotionally connected to" every
actor in the film. He further wrote, "With intense atmospheric lighting,
every frame in the film looks aesthetic and natural. Brilliant cinematography
and equally challenging action sequences are put together with razor-sharp
edits. They give the film a racy pace." The reviewer for Hindustan Times, Priyanka Sundar, called
the film a "story of greed and redemption" and remarked that it
"burns bright". While praising the "promising" background
score, "sharp" editing and "stunning" visuals, she felt that
the screenplay could have been "tighter".
Janani K. of India Today felt the film was
"dragged and over-stretched" and gave it a three out of five-star
rating. While she commended Yash's "extraordinary performance" and
the "brilliantly choreographed stunt sequences", she wrote that
despite having "universal theme, [the film] gets lost in translation,
thanks to sloppy editing and atrocious dialogues." Subha J. Rao of Firstpost gave the film a similar
rating and praised the film's music, cinematography and art direction;
particularly the latter in "bringing alive the grime and heat of the gold
mines". However, she felt "[t]ighter editing ... would have
smoothened out the kinks" in the film. Shashiprasad S. M. of Deccan Chronicle scored the film a
two-and-a-half out of five star rating and described the film as "a visual
spectacle". Barring that, he felt it fell short of "instilling the
much-needed life into it." Karthik Keramalu of Film
Companion felt that the film fell short "becoming a great movie
by a long mile". He dismissed the dialogues delivered by Yash's character
as "lengthy sermon about his own valour", while also criticizing the
film's editing.
Excepting what he described the
film's climax as "spectacular with the support of a brilliant cast"
and "spot on" sets and location, Muralidhara Khajane of The Hindu felt there was "nothing
in the film that we have not seen before". While writing that
"[t]here is a certain finesse to the edgy, moody cinematography", he
concluded that the film lacked a "soul, a believable story and a rounded
protagonist." Manoj Kumar R. of The Indian Express scored
the film two-and-a-half out of five stars and deemed it "[a]n overstretched
exercise in hero worship". While drawing comparisons of certain scenes to
those from Baahubali,
he felt the film had a "flimsy storyline", which he added is made up
for by "terrific background orchestra". Also writing for the same news
publication, Shubhra Gupta drew comparisons of the film in plot to those
of Nayakan, Deewaar, Parinda in its first half. She felt
that the film had "nothing more" than "striking cinematography,
and the brown and sepia colours which suffuse the screen".
The character of Rocky was well
received by critics. Janani K of India Today said that "You take a
look at [Rocky] and instantly you know that this guy will do the impossible and
pull people out of their misery." Sunaina Suresh of Times of India said that "The growth
of Rocky is shown steadily and the makers kept a clever story telling pattern
right through, that keeps pace with the narrative." And further added that
"The first chapter shows Rocky as the maverick mastermind who will stop at
nothing in order to achieve his mission." Troy Ribeiro of News 18 said that "Rocky is the new
Superhero in the town."
See also: List
of highest-grossing Indian films
KGF: Chapter 1 on the first
day of its release collected ₹25 crore worldwide, which was the highest opening
ever in history of Kannada film industry, In Karnataka's capital Bengaluru itself, the film has earned
about ₹5 crore on day 1. First weekend collections
stood around ₹60 crore worldwide from all its versions.The film grossed around ₹113
crore worldwide in the first week of its release and it went on to become the
first film to cross ₹100 crore mark in the history of Kannada film industry. And it has grossed over ₹250
crore in 50-days and emerged as an all-time eight highest-grossing south Indian
film at Indian box office
K.G.F: Chapter 1, completed its
theatrical run over 100-days in couple of centres of Karnataka and AP/Telangana.
· It became the
first Kannada film
to cross ₹100, ₹200 and ₹250 crore at the Indian box office.[6][73]
· K.G.F: Chapter 1 became the
fourth highest grossing Hindi dubbed film after the Baahubali franchise and 2.0.
· K.G.F was the first Sandalwood film to cross half million
($500k) dollar in United States and
cumulative $1.5 dollar in overseas
