Guru Deshpande Explained

Guru Deshpande
Birth Date:25 July 1980
Birth Place:Nagore, Talikote Bijapur district, India

Guru Deshpande is an Indian film director, producer and distributor, known for his work in Kannada film industry. He is well known for Raja Huli starring Yash and Meghana Raj.[1] In 2019, Guru Deshpande turned produced launching his banner G Cinemas[2] and started a Film Institute under the name G Academy in Bengaluru.

Early life

Guru Deshpande was born at Ilakkal Government Hospital, Bagalkot District (formerly in Bijapur District). His father's name is Marthandarao Deshpande and mother's name is Vijayalakshmi. His hometown is Nagore near Talikote in Bijapur district. Guru Deshpande did primary school from UKG to 7th grade at Balabharathi School and studied higher grades at SK High school at Talikote.[3] He came to Bangalore in 1996 and graduated Diploma in Mechanical at Acharya Polytechnic College.[4]

Career

Guru Deshpande entered film industry with a simple dream to become a director in 1999-2000. He joined Karnataka Film Training Centre at Wilson Garden and took three months training in direction department. His first project as assistant director was Kumar Govind and Sudharani starrer 'Chandana Chiguru' directed by Abdul Rehman Pasha.[5]

In the same project he also worked as assistant for art director G Murthy. Guru Deshpande later worked as an assistant art director for several films with G. Murthy. He continued learning experience as assistant director in several films including 'Sainika', ‘Sarvabhouma’ and 'Siddhu'.[6]

Guru Deshpande married Shilpa Deshpande in 2004 and they have a son. Shilpa will be debuting in films with ‘Pentagon’ under the screen name Pritika Deshpande.[7] In 2007, Guru Deshpande announced director movie Varasdhara starring Ravi Belagere in the lead role. Two new actors Ashwini and Sandeep were introduced and movie released on 7 March 2008.[8] Post that he handled distribution of films from 2009 to 2011 including Endhiran, Adukulam, Velayudham, Sanju and Geeta, Meera Weds Murali, Kirataka and many more.[9]

Breakthrough

In 2012, Guru Deshpande moved back to direction with Yash, Meghana Raj starrer Raja Huli and was produced by K Manju.[10] The movie released on Kannada Rajyotsava in 2013 and got a fantastic opening at the box-office.[11] Despite facing competition from a major Bollywood release Krrish 3 the Yash starrer stormed the Karnataka box-office. According to trade reports, collections of Raja Huli was better than Krrish 3 and Tamil flick Arrambam at Bangalore box-office.[12]

The film did excellent business on weekdays and collected approximately ₹5 crore Nett in the first week. Raja Huli was big budget film costing ₹6 crore, it recovered production cost within a week.[13] Raja Huli went on to complete 119 days of successful run and was declared Blockbuster. Raja Huli completed Yash's hat-trick success after Drama and Googly.[14]

In 2014, Guru Deshpande announced Rudratandava starring Chiranjeevi Sarja and Radhika Kumaraswamy,the action film released in February 2015 to mixed response.[15] His next project was the 2016 comedy drama John Jani Janardhan with Ajay Rao, Yogesh and 'Madarangi' Krishna in lead roles.[16] In 2018, Guru Deshpande partnered with Chiranjeevi Sarja again for Samhaara, the romantic action thriller film had Haripriya and Kavya Shetty essay female lead roles.[17] In 2019 launched producer K. Manju son Shreyas Manju with Padde Huli, the action drama had Nishvika Naidu as female lead and host of Sandalwood Superstars playing key roles.[18]

Production house and film school

After working for two decades in Kannada Film Industry, director Guru Deshpande turned producer launching G Cinemas in 2019 and announced Gentleman starring Prajwal Devaraj and Gandhinagar was excited with this amazing combination.[19] Gentleman is a crime-action film written and directed by Jadesh Kumar Hampi, Action Prince Prajwal Devaraj and Nishvika Naidu essayed the lead roles, B. Ajaneesh Loknath handled background score. Puneeth Rajkumar and Dhruva Sarja released trailer on 6 January 2020 and it immediately caught audience attention.[20]

The film's Wake Up Theme song sung by Anthony Dasan was released on 29 January 2020.[21] Even before Gentleman movie released there was big demand in Tamil and Telugu for the remake rights. [22] The film was released on 7 February 2020 to a good response.

In 2020, Guru Deshpande launched two more movies under G Cinemas banner 'Love You Racchu' starring Ajay Rao and Rachita Ram[23] written by Shashank and directed by debutant Shankar Raj and 'Pentagon', an anthology film co-produced[24] by Kaushik Izardar. 'Pentagon' has generated curiosity among Sandalwood fans especially for the combination of five directors Raghu Shivamoga, Chandra Mohan, Akash Srivatsa, Kiran Kumar and Guru Deshpande. Manikanth Kadri will be composing the music, cinematography is handled by Kiran Hampapur and Abhilash Kallathi, and edited by Venkatesh UDV.[25] His next project will be the much awaited sports drama ‘Thackeray’ expected to go on floors soon.[26]

After donning the hats of director and producer Guru Deshpande launched G Academy, Institute of Cinema and Entertainment in 2019. Well known Sandalwood directors Dayal Padmanabhan, 'Jatta' Giriraj, Satyaprakash, 'Bahaddur' Chethan Kumar are among faculty at the film school.[27]

Filmography

style="background:#ffc;"
Denotes as yet unreleased films

Director and screenplay

YearFilmDirectionScreenplayStoryNotes
2008 Varasdhara
2013 Raja Huli
2015 Rudra Tandava
2016 John Jani Janardhan
2018 Samhaara
2019 Padde Huli
2021 PentagonAnthology film; segment Karma
2022 ! scope="row" style="background:#FFFFCC;"Thackeray

Producer

YearFilmNotes
2020Gentleman
2021Love You Rachchu
2022Ombattane Dikku
2022Pentagon

Actor

YearFilmRole
2008 Varasdhara
2016John Jani Janardhan
2019Padde Huli

Notes and References

  1. News: Raja Huli Beats Aarambam-Krrish3 At Bangalore Box Office . Entertainment One India . 9 November 2013 . 25 July 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210725081127/http://entertainment.oneindia.in/kannada/news/2013/raja-huli-beats-arrambam-krissh-3-box-office-124442.html . dead .
  2. News: Gentleman mixes class and mass elements. 7 February 2020 . Times of India . 7 February 2020.
  3. Web site: Guru Deshpande – G Academy . 2023-06-12 . en-US . 12 June 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230612120203/https://gacademy.co.in/guru-deshpande/ . dead .
  4. News: ಬೆಳೆಯೋ ಟೈಮ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ನನ್ನ ವಿರುದ್ಧ ರವಿ ಬೆಳಗೆರೆ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಆರ್ಟಿಕಲ್ ಬಂದಿತ್ತು . 2 November 2020. Kannada Filmibeat . 2 November 2020.
  5. News: Guru Deshpande Says Why He Started G Academy, An Institute Of Cinema & Entertainment . 16 October 2020. Public Music . 16 October 2020.
  6. News: ಸಿನಿಮಾ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಕಲಿಸಿಕೊಡ್ತಾರೆ 'ಭರ್ಜರಿ ಚೇತನ್, ಸತ್ಯ ಪ್ರಕಾಶ್..! . 14 September 2019. NewsFirst Kannada . 14 September 2019.
  7. News: Pritika Deshpande's look from Pentagon anthology revealed . 7 February 2020. Cinemaexpress . 7 February 2020.
  8. News: Ravi plays title role in Varasdhara . 4 February 2008. Filmibeat . 4 February 2008.
  9. News: Director Guru Deshpande Cine Journey . 10 November 2020 . Filmibeat . 10 November 2020 . 25 July 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210725081107/https://kannada.filmibeat.com/videos/director-guru-deshpande-cine-journey-part-2-126544.html . dead .
  10. News: RAJA HULI LAUNCHED . 5 January 2013 . Chitraloka . 5 January 2013 . 8 January 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130108191119/http://www.chitraloka.com/news/2341-raja-huli-launched.html . dead .
  11. News: Raja Huli breaks box-office records in first week . 11 November 2013. Times of India . 11 November 2013.
  12. News: Kannada Movie "Raja Huli" Breaks Record In Sandalwood . 13 November 2013. Lehren Kannada . 13 November 2013.
  13. News: Yash's 'Raja Huli' Takes Box Office by Storm . 30 November 2013. IB Times . 30 November 2013.
  14. News: RAJAHULI COMPLETES 100 DAYS . 8 February 2014 . Chitraloka . 8 February 2014 . 2 March 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140302111006/http://www.chitraloka.com/news/4546-rajahuli-completes-100-days.html . dead .
  15. News: Radhika is always laughing . 26 February 2015. Times of India . 26 February 2015.
  16. News: Meet John Jani Janardhan.... 24 January 2017. Times of India . 24 January 2017.
  17. News: Chiranjeevi Sarja And Guru Deshpande Join Hands For Samhaara. 2 May 2017. Filmibeat . 2 May 2017.
  18. News: Ravichandran plays a similar role like Chamayya Mestru in 'Padde Huli' . 2 April 2019. Times of India . 2 April 2019.
  19. News: FIRST TEASER OF 'GENTLEMAN' RELEASED . 9 July 2019 . Chitraloka . 9 July 2019 . 14 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210514163159/https://chitraloka.com/news/20556-first-teaser-of-gentleman-released.html . dead .
  20. News: Puneeth Rajkumar and Dhruva Sarja unveil Prajwal Devaraj's Gentleman trailer . 7 January 2020. New Indian Express . 7 January 2020.
  21. News: 'Gentleman' gives a wake-up call . 27 January 2020. New Indian Express . 27 January 2020.
  22. News: 'Gentleman' remake rights in demand . 13 January 2020. New Indian Express . 13 January 2020.
  23. News: Rachita to romance Ajai Rao in Love You Rachchu . 21 January 2021. Times of India. 21 January 2021.
  24. News: 2022-12-14 . Director Guru Deshpande and Kaushik Izardar bankrolls the Kannada anthology film 'Pentagon' . The Times of India . 2023-06-12 . 0971-8257.
  25. News: Film 'Pentagon': Characters from the first story of the 5-part anthology to be unveiled tomorrow . 2 March 2021. Times of India . 2 March 2021.
  26. News: Makers of Thackeray look for a new face . 29 June 2020. Times of India . 29 June 2020.
  27. News: Guru Deshpande Starts G Academy . 6 August 2019 . Chitraloka . 6 August 2019 .