The pride of Indian cinema, particularly Kannada filmdom, Padmasri Dr. Girish Kasaravalli, received an honor at the Venice Film Festival.
The film Ghatashraddha is being screened at the Venice Film Festival, which is considered a platform for classics of world cinema. Usually, there are two screenings for a film at a film festival, but this film has three screenings.
Film director Girish Kasaravalli received a special invitation. This is the first Kannada film to be screened at the Venice Film Festival. Sadananda Suvarna is the producer of this film, which won the gold medal in the Karnataka State Award in addition to the National People’s Gold Medal. Based on a short story by U.R. Ananthamurthy, the screenplay was written and directed by Girish Kasaravalli. The film’s cinematography was by S. Ramachandra, music by B.V. Karanth, and art direction by K.V. Subbanna. This film, which featured all new faces, was released in 1978.
Ghatashraddha created a new sensation in the new wave of Kannada films and was appreciated by audiences and critics. This film was also Girish Kasaravalli’s first film, competing with giant filmmakers like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Aravindan, John Abraham, and Girish Karnad in the National Award competition that year and won the gold medal.
Directed when he was only 26 years old, the film was praised by Ray, Sen, and Adoor for its content, visual richness, and cinematic power. In 2009, to commemorate the centenary of cinema, a central government agency, the Directorate of Film Festivals, selected 20 Indian classics from the 100-year history of cinema. Indian film critics and directors chose Ghatashraddha as one of them. Famous Hollywood directors like Martin Scorsese of Taxi Driver and The Departed fame and George Lucas of Star Wars fame, who had seen and admired the movie, were ready to remake it. Indian film director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, who won the National Award for Celluloid Man, was the sponsor of this entire renovation.
