These 2 Kannada Films Were Based On The Same William Shakespeare Play

From Hindi to the Kannada film industry, all were influenced by English literature. Many films have been made that draw inspiration from the greatest playwright of all time, William Shakespeare. A similar inspiration has been seen in Kannada films as well. For example, Rajkumar was a popular actor in the Kannada film industry and many of his films had drawn their inspiration from different novels.

According to reports, Rajkumar’s wife, Parvathamma Rajkumar, was a producer in the industry. She used to read a lot of novels and back to back films that were based on them. Popular actor Rajkumar’s brother, SP Varadaraj, and screenwriter Chi Adaya Shankar were also very keen on understanding Western stories and depicting them on the silver screen. As a result, in his 200 films, Rajukumar had various films that were based on Western plays and novels.

In 1976, Rajkumar starrer Bahaddur Gandu was released. It was reported that the film was based on William Shakespeare’s famous play, The Taming of the Shrew. The film also starred Jayanthi, Aarathi and Vajramuni in prominent roles. It was directed by AV Sheshagiri Rao, and the screenplay was written by Chi Udaya Shankar. Bahaddur Gandu was a huge hit and received great reviews from critics as well as the audience. The film ran for 19 weeks in theatres, as per reports.

There has been another film that was based on William Shakespeare’s play, The Taming of the Shrew. It was the 1989 Kannada film Nanjundi Kalyana and starred Rajkumar’s son, Raghavendra Rajkumar, in the lead role. It also starred Malashri, Girija Lokesh and Sundar Krishna in prominent roles. It was directed by MS Rajashekhar and became a huge hit at the box office. According to reports, Nanjundi Kalyana was one of the highest-grossing Kannada films of 1989 and saw a theatrical run of 90 weeks. Later, the film was dubbed into Telugu as Naaku Mogudu Kavali.

Both these films were backed by Parvathamma Rajkumar and performed well at the box office.

Keywords: William Shakespeare’s inspired Kannada films, Bahaddur Gandu, Nanjundi Kalyana, Rajkumar, Parvathamma Rajkumar, The Taming of the Shrew, Films based on The Taming of the Shrew, Films based on William Shakespeare’s plays