''Kurukshetra'' is a 2019 Indian

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

-language

mythological Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

film written by

J. K. Bharavi J. K. Bhairavi is an Indian film, writer, lyricist, playback singer, composer, actor, producer and director known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. In 2004, he scripted '' Bommalata'' which received the National Film Award for Best ...

and directed by

Naganna B. Naganna is an Indian film director and writer working in Kannada cinema. He is the son of acclaimed producer and distributor R. Lakshman. After working as an associate director in the K. S. L. Swamy directorial ''Jimmy Gallu'' in 1982, Nagan ...

. The story is based on the epic poem ''Gadhayuddha'' by

Ranna Ranna may refer to: *Ranna, a subdivision of the town Auerbach in der Oberpfalz in Bavaria, Germany * Ranna, Estonia, a village in the former municipality Pala Parish, Estonia * Ranna (Danube), a river of Bavaria, Germany and of Upper Austria, tri ...

, which itself is based on the Indian epic ''

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the '' Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the K ...

''. The story is centred on

Duryodhana Duryodhana ( sa, दुर्योधन, ) also known as Suyodhana, is the primary antagonist in the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata.'' He was the eldest of the Kauravas, the hundred sons of the blind king Dhritarashtra and his queen Gandhari. Being ...

, the

Kaurava ''Kaurava'' is a Sanskrit term which refers to descendants of Kuru, a legendary king of India who is the ancestor of many of the characters of the epic ''Mahabharata''. Usually, the term is used for the 100 sons of King Dhritarashtra and his w ...

king. The film was produced by

Munirathna Munirathna Naidu, commonly known as Munirathna, is an Indian film producer-turned-politician from Karnataka who is currently serving as the Minister of Horticulture and Planning, Programme Monitoring & Statistics of Karnataka from 4 August 2021 ...

. The film features an

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast t ...

including Darshan,

Ambareesh Malavalli Huchchegowda Amarnath (29 May 1952 – 24 November 2018), known by his screen name Ambareesh, was an Indian actor, media personality, politician from the state of Karnataka. Alongside Rajkumar and Vishnuvardhan, he is counted i ...

(his final role),

V. Ravichandran Veeraswamy Ravichandran (born 30 May 1961), known mononymously as Ravichandran, is an actor, director, producer, music director, lyricist and editor in the Kannada Film Industry. He is the son of film producer N. Veeraswamy. As producer, Ravi ...

P. Ravishankar Pudipeddi Ravi Shankar (born 28 November 1966), also known as Sai Ravi, is an Indian actor, dubbing artist, director and writer. He predominantly appears in Kannada films, in addition to Telugu and Tamil films. He dubbed for over 3500 films w ...

Arjun Sarja Srinivasa "Arjun" Sarja is an Indian actor, producer, and director who works predominantly in the Tamil film industry, in addition to Kannada and Telugu languages as well. Referred to by the media and his fans as "Action King" for his roles in ...

Meghana Raj Meghana Sunder Raj Sarja (born 3 May 1990) is an Indian actress who primarily works in Malayalam and Kannada films along with a few Telugu and Tamil films. She made her acting debut in the 2009 Telugu film ''Bendu Apparao R.M.P''. She has wo ...

Sneha Sneha ( hi, स्नेहा) is a popular Hindu Indian feminine given name, which means "Affection". Notable people named Sneha *Sneha (actress) (born 1981), Indian actress in South Indian films - Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada languag ...

Sonu Sood Sonu Sood (born 30 July 1973) is an Indian actor, film producer, model, humanitarian, and philanthropist who works predominantly in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Kannada films. In 2009, he received the Andhra Pradesh State Nandi Award for Best Vi ...

Danish Akhtar Saifi Danish Akhtar Saifi is an Indian wrestler-turned-actor best known for playing the role of Hanuman in the television series ''Siya Ke Ram''. He made his film debut in the 2019 Hindu mythological Kannada film ''Kurukshetra'' (based on the Mahabhar ...

Nikhil Kumar Nikhil Kumar (born 15 July 1941) is a former IPS officer-turned politician hailing from Bihar who was Governor of Nagaland from 2009 to 2013 and Governor of Kerala from 2013 to 2014. One of country's well known IPS officers of 1963 batch f ...

Haripriya Shruthi Chandrasena, known professionally as Haripriya, is an Indian actress and model who chiefly works in Kannada films, in addition to a few Tamil and Telugu films. Haripriya is currently engaged to Kannada actor Vasista.N. Simha. Early lif ...

and

Shashikumar Shashi Kumar (born 2 December 1965) is an actor and politician from Karnataka. He works predominantly in Kannada films. Acting career Shashi Kumar's first released film was ''Chiranjeevi Sudhakara'' starring Raghavendra Rajkumar. In 1989 h ...

, portraying characters from ''Mahabharata''. The score and soundtrack for the film is composed by

V. Harikrishna V. Harikrishna (born 5 November 1974) is an Indian film score and soundtrack composer, playback singer and film producer. He has mainly scored music for Kannada films. After his stint as a programmer and assistant musician, Harikrishna made hi ...

whilst it has cinematography by

Jayanan Vincent Jayanan Vincent is an Indian cinematographer. He is the son of cinematographer and director, A. Vincent, and elder brother to Ajayan Vincent. He is known for his work in Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi films and he is a member of the In ...

. The film was released on 9 August 2019 across more than 1000 screens, making it the widest release for any Kannada film alongside the dubbed Telugu version. On 15 August, the Tamil version was released. The Malayalam-language version was released on 18 October in Kerala. It is one of the highest-grossing Kannada films.

Plot

The story is a reinterpretation of the war described in the ''

'' Sanskrit epic, from

's viewpoint. After losing to the Kauravas in a gamble, the Pandavas go into exile and endure hardship for a number of years. Upon their return, conflict arises over the dynastic succession leading to a war.

Cast

Production

The official launch of the film was held on 6 August 2017 with filming beginning on the same day. A major portion of the film was shot at

Ramoji Film City Ramoji Film City is an integrated film studio facility located in Hyderabad, India. Spread over 1,666 acres (674 ha), it is the largest film studio complex in the world and as such has been certified by the Guinness World Records. It was estab ...

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

. The film was shot twice, first in 2D format and then in 3D, with shooting completed after more than 230 days. A few scenes and dialogues were reported to have been inspired by the 1977 Telugu movie ''

Daana Veera Soora Karna ''Daana Veera Soora Karna'' () is a 1977 Indian Telugu-language Hindu mythological film co-written, produced and directed by N. T. Rama Rao under his banner, Ramakrishna Cine Studios. Based on the life of Karna from the ''Mahabharata'' ...

''.

Soundtrack

Music director

was commissioned to compose the film's score.

Lahari Music Lahari Recording Company is an Indian music company based in Bangalore. It owns a music label called "Lahari Music" also a film production company called "Lahari Films LLP". They later ventured into construction under the name of HomEquity Indi ...

, which bagged the film's audio rights for 1.5 crore, launched the soundtrack on 7 July 2019. The first song, "Saahore Saaho", was released on 5 July 2019. ;Kannada Tracklist ;Hindi Tracklist ;Telugu Tracklist ;Tamil Tracklist ;Malayalam Tracklist

Release

Home media

The satellite rights for the Kannada and Hindi versions of the film were bought by two different companies for 9 crore and 9.5 crore, respectively.

Release date allocation

A news report in late-2018 speculated that the film would be released in February 2019. But a delay caused the release date to be pushed to 5 April, targeting a

Ugadi Ugadi or Yugadi, also known as Samvatsarādi (), is New Year's Day according to the Hindu calendar and is celebrated in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka in India. It is festively observed in these regions on the first ...

release. After actor

announced his participation in the

2019 Indian general elections Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Mus ...

, the release date was further postponed as promotion of a candidate is prohibited during the elections. Producer Munirathna remarked, "The film is made in both 2D and 3D and it has got delayed due to the extensive graphics. Now, we are ready with the product and as planned, I am very keen to release this in April first week. But since Nikhil is part of our film, if I want to go ahead with the planned release date, I will have to lose out the entire Mysuru region." The film was later slated to be released on 9 August but pulled forward by a week in order to avoid a clash in screen allotment with another multi-language release ''

Saaho ''Saaho'' () is a 2019 Indian action thriller film written and directed by Sujeeth and produced by UV Creations. It stars Prabhas in the title role with an ensemble cast including Shraddha Kapoor, Chunky Pandey, Jackie Shroff, Arun Vijay, Neil ...

''. Later it was rescheduled to 9 August to coincide with the festival of

Varamahalakshmi Vrata Varalakshmi Vratam , also called Varalakshmi Puja, is a Hindu observance to propitiate the goddess of prosperity, Lakshmi. Varalakshmi is the manifestation of Lakshmi who grants boons (''vara''). It is a puja primarily performed by married Hin ...

. The film was planned to be simultaneously released in four languages, apart from Kannada. The film was released on 9 August 2019 in both 2D and 3D formats in two languages – Kannada and Telugu. On 15 August 2019, the Tamil version was released. Due to

floods in Kerala A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study o ...

, the Malayalam version was released in the 18 October 2019. The Hindi version hit the theatres on 20 December 2019. On 5 September 2019, the film was released in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

countries of United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, and Qatar.

References

External links

* {{Works based on the Mahabharata, state=collapsed 2019 films Films based on the Mahabharata Indian epic films Films scored by V. Harikrishna Indian biographical films Hindu mythological films 2010s Kannada-language films Films shot at Ramoji Film City Indian historical action films Hindu devotional films Indian 3D films 2019 3D films Rockline Entertainments films 2010s biographical films Films directed by Naganna