Ravichandran

If you were born in the seventies or eighties, I bet you would have enjoyed this song immensely every time it was shown on TV:

The movie was "Premaloka". It had a non-existent (wafer thin at max) storyline, with terrific songs. It had outrageous sets and even outrageous dialogues, which the conservative Kannada films was not accustomed to. It was the first Kannada movie to have a budget of over a crore rupees. It captured the public's imagination and went on to become a huge blockbuster. Apart from introducing mini skirts and the adorable Juhi Chawla to Kannada films, this was Kannada's first (and perhaps only) musical.

Ravichandran as an actor was always below par. This is true even today. But there is one thing you cant take away from him. For showing that you can make profitable Kannada films with bigger budget also. He is hailed in the film industry for his technical proficiency and lavish sets for picturizing songs. Like many Kannada heroes, he also holds some ridiculous titles like "Crazy Star" (not sure about the reason for this title), "Kanasugara" and "Rasika". His most important contribution is his collaboration with Hamsalekha, which churned out lovely numbers with amazing regularity. Apart from catchy songs, they brought about a very casual, conversational style to the lyrics, whose effect can be seen even today. All you wow-wowing Yograj Bhat and his ilk should know where it originally started.