Victory (2013 film)

Victory is a 2013 Indian Kannada comedy film directed by Nanda Kishore and written by M. S. Sreenath. The film stars Sharan and Asmita Sood in the lead roles along with Avinash, Ravishankar and Ramesh Bhat playing supporting roles. Actress Ragini Dwivedi appears in one item dance number for the film. The film is produced by SRS Media Vision in association with Anand Audio, a popular audio company in Karnataka.

The film was an instant success at the box-office. The original score and soundtrack for the film was composed by Arjun Janya. One of the songs, "Khali Quarter", from the film went viral on the social media and was widely appreciated by celebrities and critics. The film premiered in the US through producer Atlanta Nagendra on 6 September 2013, and was widely appreciated. It was observed that the storyline of the movie was similar to that of 1995 Kannada movie Ganeshana Galate which itself was based on the 1978 movie The Odd Job. The movie was remade in Telugu in 2016 as Selfie Raja starring Allari Naresh. The movie had a sequel titled Victory 2 released in 2018 in which he played the role of quadruplet thereby becoming the second Indian actor after Kamal Hassan to play such a role.

Plot
The film starts with Chandru (Sharan) marrying Priya (Asmita Sood) and on the very first night of their marriage they get separated. Dejected by this, Chandru attempts suicide several times, but in vain. He then hires a local Don (Ravishankar) and gives him a week's time to kill him. Meanwhile, Priya returns to Chandru realizing her mistakes and wants to live with him. But the don is reluctant to kill Chandru as per the contract and would not spare him. What follows is the comical twists and turns about how Chandru escapes from the don and re-unites with Priya.

Cast

 * Sharan as Chandru
 * Asmita Sood as Priya
 * Ravishankar as Ravi
 * Tabla Nani
 * Avinash
 * Sadhu Kokila
 * Ramesh Bhat
 * Mimicry Dayanad
 * Girija Lokesh
 * Apoorva
 * Chikkanna
 * Mithra
 * Keerthiraj
 * Kuri Pratap
 * Ragini Dwivedi as Maya (item number)
 * Nanda Kishore in a cameo appearance in song "Khali Quarter"

Crew

 * Director: Nanda Kishore
 * Producer: SRS Media Vision, Anand Audio
 * Music: Arjun Janya
 * Cinematography: Shekar Chandra
 * Editing: K M Prakash, Anil Sagar
 * Choreography: Imran Sardhariya, Murali, Dhankumar
 * Sound Effects: Rajan
 * Lyrics: K. Kalyan, Kaviraj, Jayanth Kaikini, Yogaraj Bhat, Ghouse peer

Production
Actor turned debutant director Nanda Kishore, son of yester-year actor Sudheer, announced his maiden project and titled it as "Victory". He roped in Sharan as the main protagonist who tasted big success from Rambo released in 2012. One of the unit members reported that the film would be a comic-caper and would engage the audience for its complete length. Model-turned-actress Asmita Sood who was a Miss India finalist in 2011, was signed up for her first Kannada film to play the lead role opposite Sharan.

Soundtrack
Owing to the success of the previous venture, Rambo, the audio company Anand Audio, which also returned to film production, once again teamed up with music director Arjun Janya and actor Sharan for this film. Arjun composed four tracks for the film out of which one repeats in male and female versions. Well known lyricists such as Jayanth Kaikini, Yogaraj Bhat, K. Kalyan and Kaviraj wrote the lyrics for the songs. Popular yester-year playback singer L. R. Eswari made a comeback by rendering her voice for a dance song in this film.

The single "Khali Quarter" from the soundtrack sung by Vijay Prakash and written by Yogaraj Bhat went viral on the online video sharing sites and was widely considered as one of the most successful songs of 2013.

The Times Of India reviewed the music album and rated it 3.5 out of 5 and appreciated the tracks such as "Khali Quarter" and "Kanna Minche". The latter song was called the "anthem of the album" that highlights the composer's trademark style. It also predicted that the soundtrack would stay in top of the charts for longer time in the upcoming weeks.

Response
Victory opened to a tremendous response at the box office. All across the Karnataka State, the film was declared a blockbuster hit within the first week of its release. Even before the release, the film created a news by selling the satellite rights at a record price of ₹ 2.5Crores to a Kannada channel. This price itself was the total production cost of the film and further the distribution sales were at the record selling price which made the film a blockbuster all over. The first week collections mounted about ₹6Crores while the first weekend collections were about ₹2.6Crores.

Critical reception
Upon release, Victory was unanimously praised by all the critics for its neat screenplay and direction with adequate performances by the lead characters. Sify.com rated the film with 4 stars saying that the film has the "right mix of comedy, humour-laced dialogues, racy storyline, and songs that complement the script, including an item song, making the movie a clean entertainer". Chitraloka.com reviewed that the actor-turned-director Nandakishore and Sharan combination clicks big time and the film is one of the best Kannada films of the year.

Overseas release
Victory was released in all major centers all over the US. The film also gained from its overseas release from the Kannada speaking regions such as Seattle, Portland, Austin, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, New Jersey, Boston, New York, Florida, Tampa, Arizona and Chicago.