Vishnuvardhana (film)

Vishnuvardhana is a 2011 Kannada comedy thriller film starring Sudeep, Bhavana and Priyamani. The film was directed and written by P. Kumar, in his debut, and produced by actor Dwarakish. The film is supposedly a tribute to Kannada film actor Dr. Vishnuvardhan who was a friend of Dwarakish's. The film's music was composed by V. Harikrishna. The film was released on 8 December 2011. The film was officially remade in Bengali in 2014 as Bachchan. The movie was reported to be inspired by the 2009 South Korean movie Handphone which the director had vehemently denied.

Plot
Vishnuvardhana (Sudeep) Steals the phone of a Local goon Aadishesha (Sonu Sood). He takes his dealing money in the name of him. Adishesha tries to search him. Vishnu fools him and scolds everytime. He befriends Bharathi (Bhavana Menon) and likes her and impressed her father (Dwarakish). Dr. Surya Prakash (Jayaram Karthik) would marry her, he angered on him.

Meera (Priyamani), wife of Adishesha requested Vishnu to kill aadhi. But Vishnu questions her and she reaveales that he cheated her. Vishnuvardhan stays in adhishesha's home and finally and reavels himself and kills him.

Cast

 * Sudeep as Vishnuvardhana
 * Bhavana as Bharathi
 * Priyamani as Meera
 * Sonu Sood as Adhishesha
 * Dwarakish as Colonel
 * Arun Sagar as Nimbehannu aka Shastri
 * J. Karthik as Dr. Surya Prakash
 * Neenasam Ashwath as Adhishesha's brother
 * Karisubbu as Vishnuvardhana's father
 * Ravi Chethan as Police Inspector
 * Aarthi as Valli
 * Sangeeta as Bharathi's sister

Reception
The Bangalore Mirror gave the film a rating of three-and-a-half stars. It also lauded the first-time director P. Kumar and praised the screenplay. It added that the movie had all the ingredients of a commercial success. The Chitraloka website said it was a comedy thriller and lauded the film, saying it had a terrific script which sustains the interest of audience added to these plus-point powerful performances by Sudeep and Priyamani. The Times of India gave four stars and praised the performance of Sudeep

Release and box office
The movie was released in around 140 theatres all over Karnataka. The satellite rights of the film were sold for inr 20000000. The distributor, Kumar MN, said that the collection was inr 80000000 in one week. The collection made by the movie had crossed inr 150000000 before the completion of second week. It was mostly the huge fan following of Vishnuvardhan who had watched the film initially, but was later followed by the Sudeep fans and Vishnuvardhan fans together, pouring in to watch the film repeatedly. Finally the movie was declared a blockbuster hit of the year and collected over inr 360000000.

The film was later dubbed into Hindi as Mr. Mobile 2 by Goldmines Telefilms in 2016 with Sudeep's voice dubbed by Amar Babaria.

Title controversy
Since the movie went into production with the title Vishnuvardhana, there was a strong opposition against the usage of the title by some groups. This opposition was led by Dr. Vishnuvardhan's wife, actress Dr. Bharathi Vishnuvardhan. Dwarakish, along with his associate producer Yogish, struggled hard to fight the accusations. Finally, the title was changed to Veera Vishnuvardhana and was later changed again to Only Vishnuvardhana.

Remake
The movie was remade in Bengali as Bachchan starring Jeet, Aindrita Ray, Payel Sarkar, Kanchan Mullick and Mukul Dev in lead role.

Soundtrack
V. Harikrishna composed five songs along with the background score for this film. The audio was formally released on 1 December 2011 and on a private radio station, the songs were released on the same day. The lyrics are penned by lyricists such as Nagendra Prasad, Kaviraj and Yogaraj Bhat. Ashwini Media works took up the audio distribution rights for 3.6 million rupees.

Awards and nominations
59th Filmfare Awards South :-
 * Best Director – Kannada – Nominated – P. Kumar

1st South Indian International Movie Awards :-
 * Best Debut Director – Kannada – Winner – P. Kumar
 * Best Film – Kannada – Nominated – B.S. Dwarakish
 * Best Actor (Female) – Kannada – Nominated – Bhavana
 * Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Kannada – Nominated – Arun Sagar
 * Best Actor in a Negative Role – Kannada – Nominated – Sonu Sood
 * Best Cinematographer – Kannada – Nominated – Rajarathnam
 * Best Playback Singer (Female) – Kannada – Nominated – Sowmya Raoh for the song "Yedeyolage Guitaru"

4th Suvarna Film Awards :-
 * Best Actor – Winner – Sudeep
 * Best Choreographer – Winner – Harsha

Sandalwood Star Awards :-
 * Best Film – Nominated
 * Best Actor – Nominated – Sudeep
 * Best Director – Nominated – P. Kumar
 * Best Debut Director – Winner – P. Kumar
 * Best Comedian – Nominated – Arun Sagar
 * Best Actor in a Negative Role – Nominated – Sonu Sood
 * Best Screenplay – Nominated – P. Kumar
 * Best Supporting Actress – Winner – Priyamani
 * Best Dialogue – Nominated – Kalidasa, Srikanth, Ramesh Kamal
 * Best Stunt Director – Nominated – Ravi Varma, Ganesh
 * Best Choreographer – Winner – Harsha
 * Best Art Director – Nominated – Mohan Pandit, Mohan Kere, Anand

Bangalore Times Film Awards :-
 * Best Actor – Winner – Sudeep
 * Best Film – Nominated
 * Best Actor in a Negative Role Male – Nominated – Sonu Sood
 * Best Actor in a Negative Role Female – Nominated – Priyamani

1st Kannada International Music Awards (KiMA) :-
 * Best Playback Singer (Female) – Nominated – Lakshmi Vijay for the song "Yaarappana Gante Aagli"