Birthday Wishes To Upendra, Uppi's Profile

Name: Upendra
Birth Date: 18-09-1967
Height: 5 ft 11 inc

Upendra (born 18 September 1967) is a Kannada cinema director, actor and script writer. Born in a lower middle classs family, Upendra started his career off with film director Kashinath as a writer and an assistant director. His first directional venture was 'Tharle Nanmaga'.

In the late 90's he broke into the scene with the extremely violent Om, which also starred actual Bangalore gangsters. He followed this up with A, in which he starred. Upendra, his next film, starred Raveena Tandon, a popular Bollywood actress.Films acted and directed by him "A" and "Upendra" can be said to be excellent.These two films explores human emotions in a new dimension. It portrays how humans change according to situation,self becomes above all at that time.Technically these movies are good by any standards.Upendra's script writing skills can be seen in narration and flow of these films. Narration of his movies are unusual in the film making context.

Upendra on his wife Priyanka Trivedi
All is well. My nature, quality and attitudes she likes very much. Priyanka is a simple lady. She is very soft in her approach. She does not have the head weight. I did not like her outer beauty but the inner beauty. I was not that interested in marriage. My parents told me that I should get married one day or the other. Priyanka after marriage adjusted very well with my parents. She has become very close with my brother family and children in a very quick time. She is very intelligent. She was a rank student. She had the intentions of becoming a teacher. Her behavior, basic nature, know how of poor and rich made me to like her.

They are 'Trivedis'. For me my parents are very important. Now I am also father of two kids and life is very lively now. After marriage and children my life has changed to some extent.

Upendra's Daily Activities

At whatever time I go to bed I prefer to get up at 6 am. Do exercise for physical fitness for one hour. I do dance practice to keep me flexible. Earlier a dance master was coming to my house. Now I do on my own. In case of shooting I leave home after breakfast. If there is no shooting I sit for story discussion. Before marriage I was sitting for discussion till 3 in the morning. Now I am not like that. After 10 I would like to be in home. That is because of kids too.

I have an advertising company. 'Suddi Adam Agency'. I work on ideas for it. 'Navarathna Oil' was brought out from this company. Amitabh Bachchan and Govinda in Hindi figured for this advertisement. I have the office and home at one place. That is easy for me. I have worked as brand ambassador for UB – Ella OK Cool drinks Yaake'.

I have worked for 'Nandini' milk products as brand promoter. Upendra's home banner film is 'Gokarna' that was a silver jubilee film

Upendra and Poverty

Poverty is stagnant. It should not be permanent. I remember the day my mother mixing poison in the chapathis and giving it to all the family members. That is because we were so poor and had nothing to survive. But someone came and helped us from the jaws of death. If I had a sister in my life I would have been alive today. I was from lower middle class family. To 'feel rejected and dejected' is a very hard phase of life.

Career as a Director

Kannada film industry has witnessed very few good artists and technicians in the last decade or so. One among them has been Upendra. He has done well to gain popularity in a brief period. It is very important that we show concern on such an individual, because the eminence of kannada film industry lies in the hands of people like him. First, let me make it clear that I too am a big fan of Upendra. Kannada people definitely need more such personalities to bring about some cachet to the Kannada films.

The Ups in Upendra's life look like a huge inspiration to the entire film industry, but his Downs look like an unsolvable puzzle and raise so many questions. That’s why they look like “Dowwwwwwwwwwwwwns”.

Although you may know most of the facts about him, here are some of the various phases of his career.

Upendra is known to have roots from a poor-middle class family. He strived to succceed in film industry. He started off his career as a writer and as an assistant to Kashinath. It baffles us how Kashinath could be a god father to people like Upendra, Sunil Kumar Desai, V. Manohar etc.; To start with, Upendra directed a film called “Tharle nanmaga” which was the first puzzle put by him to people like me. I still can’t understand how Upendra could have directed that film.

Upendra understood his mistake and he joined hands with a man called Kumar Govindu, who was eager to become an actor. Govindu was the producer of the first proper film directed by Upendra called Shhh. Both Upendra and Govindu should take mutual credits for helping one another. Upendra needed a producer like Govindu to retrace his career and Govindu needed a director like Upendra to mold his acting skills.

But the proper talent survived and the other perished. Although Govindu acted reasonably well in Shhh, he was completely out of sorts in any of his other films. That shows the strength of a director. Shhh was a sensational suspense thriller (for a newcomer) with neat narration.

After Shhh, Upendra continued to stay on high with his next huge banner film “OM”. Upendra first of all impressed one and all by his amazing titles like Shhh, OM, A, Swastik etc. OM had a story based on underworld activities. It was a neat film with marvelous screenplay, narration and gorgeous acting . It gave a new image to Shivrajkumar. I can say that this film made so many people to start watching Kannada films again. This film made enough to impress one and all.

With the popularity that he gained till then, Upendra jumped into a new venture of directing “Operation Antha” which was the extended version of the one time popular Kannada movie “Antha”. While “Antha” was viewed on sheer politics, “Operation Antha” contained revolutionary ideas. In this film, Upendra tried to narrate a character which fought against the deadly evils in the society in an ambiguous way. The idea was right, but the execution was wrong, many sequences in the film were melodramatic. The screenplay was not stiff. These types of films need heavy money to be spent on, which is not possible in Kannada’s market. “Operation Antha” was definitely one of the downs in Upendra’s career.

So Upendra might then have realized the limitation of the market and switched to a fresh, deceptive, innovative narration to his next film “A”. He also made a statement that it was a film only for knowledgeable people. But it was a film only for people with heart. It showed how a great man strived to make a quality movie with a very low budget offered and with so many limitations bounding him.

He also acted in the film for the first time in the lead role. Although he has some weakness in acting, it was absolutely right when he decided to act. Otherwise, he would not have survived in the industry. The film industry should first understand that the young talented directors should be properly taken care and given enough respect. Directors are never considered as stars but they do need at least some money to survive, when the actors are grabbing heavy bucks. Because Upendra acted in “A”, he gained enough popularity and the star value, which helped him to carry on in the industry.

After this, he directed a film called “Swastik” (I don’t know why he made this film) to perhaps give a rebirth to Raghavendra Rajkumar who was struggling to endure in the industry. Upendra chose a patriotic subject for this film. Although the story was good, the screenplay was weak with fanatical narration. These sorts of films need serious planning of scripts. But Upendra was still in the “A” hangover and he may not suit to do these types of films. This was another unnecessary move by Upendra in his career.

We must appreciate Upendra for understanding his failure. He switched back to his style and made a beautiful psychological thriller “Upendra” to regain his fame back. But at the same time, this film of his was criticized the most for its arrogant, vulgar, illusory approach. But the critics did not understand the bright points of the film and more importantly the situation of Upendra. I think he was forced to influx a little too much vulgarism in this film to make sure that the film at least reached a big mass audience who like such stuffs. Understandably, he was feared of failure at this juncture of his career. But I strongly believe that Upendra also gained a lot of true film lovers who adored his direction skills.

At this stage, Upendra became superstar in Kannada film industry. So he was then contacted by Rockline production which is a fantastic banner in Kannada film industry that makes big budget Kannada remake films with big actors. “Preethse” was the film which was remade from Hindi’s “Dhar”. In one way for some people, it might have been interesting to see how Upendra would act in Shahrukh khan’s role. But for me it looked like misuse of talent for business purposes. When Upendra was at his creative best, what was this producer trying to do? It is unworthy discussing anything about a remake film.

But if the same money that was spent on “Preethse” was spent on “A” and “Upendra”, then those films would have become popular in the national arena. Of course, the big producers would hesitate to work with new directors, it’s understandable. But after the popularity that Upendra gained till then, at least Rockline production should have encouraged Upendra to do a straight rich film, Upendra would definitely have responded well. Why did they forget that Upendra was first of all a superb director and why did they deny him directing films?

Then there was a big lull. This was the mysterious period in Upendra’s career. I don’t exactly know what happened in this period. Of course he went to Hyderabad to act in some Telugu movies. But I strongly believe that Upendra wouldn’t have had any poor gimmick. I think he was not impressed by the kind of offers that he received in Kannada. I think he might have forced to give up direction and to continue just as an actor.

There might have been some politics involved. Upendra is often criticized for his arrogant, vulgar and ragged narration. May be the other directors were envious on his talent and misused this blame on Upendra. This might be the reason for Upendra to stop direction completely. So, from there on Upendra has never looked like himself again. This has been a great loss to Kannada film industry and Kannada film viewers.

Coming back to his career, after a long gap he made a film called “H2O”, which was not directed by him, but he wrote the script for this film. This film had a lot of expectation not only because it was Upendra’s come back film, but also there were few more highlights like Prabhudeva was acting in this film; the film was based on the kaveri issue. The film actually took off well with Upendra’s usual approach.

The criticism on the usage of Tamil language in the movie is meaningless. When the Tamil language films are running successfully here, when Tamil people are living happily here, when Tamil language is enjoying an unofficial second language status here, it is ridiculous on the part of kannadigas to bark on such matters. For me, it was a wonderful idea to use Tamil language in the film, as it was relevant to the story and also that it would attract some Tamilians living here.

I am not telling that all movies should contain Tamil. Let us leave the language issue aside, let us talk about the story of the film. When we watch the film carefully it seems like Kaveri is affectionate towards them and reluctant to us. This actually hurt me and many others I believe. I don’t know what politics was involved behind this. We also understood that there were so many mix-ups before the release of the film. Any how this film did not impress Upendra’s fans by much.

Quickly forgetting H2O, the fans eagerly waited for his next film “Super Star” to release. There was again hype surrounding this film, this time because it was directed by Nagathihalli Chandrashekar and was based on the tragic love story in a Royal family of Nepal. But there was a total mismatch. The narration of the film matched neither that of Upendra nor Nagathihalli. Certainly this was the worst film of Upendra in my opinion.

I think Upendra tried to reveal his inner feelings in the form of two characters: Superstar and Real star (Actor and director). He might have split himself into two. One-the people made (or forced) Super star and the other the original creative director. If closely observed this film shows the frustration about his state in the industry. The climax in the film (assuming you have seen) actually indicates his awkwardness to whether kill the actor inside him (in the film - Ricky), whether to kill the director (in the film - Deependra) or to kill his career in the industry itself (in the film – Heroine).

Finally he decides to survive everyone. That means he may continue his career, continue acting and leave the direction for sometime in the future, may be. I am not sure how much this assessment of mine is true. Overall the film was disappointing.

In between his remake films, another straight film called “Hollywood” was released. This film was produced by the richest banner in Kannada film industry, Ramu Enterprises. Although Ramu decided to catch a big fish, the film lost most of its charisma because of the time taken to finish it. The film was first scheduled to shoot in Hollywood, USA but then was shifted to Australia. The heroine of the film got changed. The film got changed from a science fiction to a comedy film. Finally the director was also changed. The film was also affected by Upendra’s series of flops: H20, Superstar, Nagarahavu, Naanu naane. So the film was totally depleted and might have just impressed some children.

But the real problem period of Upendra started thereafter and it is sad that it is continuing even now. He acted in a series of remake films made by various uncultured directors and producers such as Nagarahavu, Naanu naane, Kutumba, Raktha kanneeru, Gokarna and Devdas (yet to be released) It is better not to discuss any word about these films. Some of these films are hit and some are flops. But this has not done any harm to Upendra as an actor; he may continue to get more such films as long as he wishes.

This brief survey on Upendra’s career shows how difficult it is to become a creative director in Kannada film industry. If the good directors get at least 10% of encouragement that an actor gets, then it would do wonders to their careers. I am sure that Upendra is uncomfortable or pretending to be comfortable with his career today. Someone has to understand his feelings. Upendra himself has to reassess his career. I believe that he can do even quality films without depending too much on vulgarism or arrogance. He must know that there are plenty of fans behind him encouraging if he moves in the right path.

Filmography

Director

* Tharle Nan Maga
* Sshhh
* Om
* Operation Antha
* A (1998)
* Swasthik(1999)
* Upendra

Actor

* Ananthana Avanthara
* Shhh
* Operation Antha
* A
* Upendra
* Preethse
* H2O
* Superstar
* Nagarahavu
* Naanu Naane
* Hollywood
* Kutumba
* Raktha Kanneru
* Omkara
* Gokarna
* Gowramma
* News
* Autoshankar
* Uppi Daada MBBS
* Tandege Takka Maga
* Aishwarya
* Parodi
* Masti
* Lavakusha
* Anatharu
* Bhimoos Bang Bang Kids

Other languages

* Salute (Sathyam) - 2008
* Toss(2007) Telugu
* Kaveri (Tamil)
* Raa (Telugu)
* Sarpa
* Neethone Vuntanu (Telugu)
* H2O (Telugu)

Salute Telugu Movie Review

Film: SALUTE

Rating: 2.5/5

Banner: GK Productions

Cast: Vishal, Nayantara, Upendra, Kota, Ali, Brahmanandam and others

Music: Harris Jayaraj

Cinematography: R D Rajasekhar

Director: Rajasekhar

Producer: Vikram Krishna

Released Date: August 14, 2008


Story:

A regular cop story, the movie begins with Sathyam (Vishal) who is a tough cop and an honest one too. He is an ACP and believes that law and order must be maintained at all times, however he is more of a peace lover and strongly believes that anyone who has done something wrong can be taken to task under the purview of justice and book of law without using any special methods. This also makes him feel repulsive about the encounter methods.


However things take a turn when a well known politician (Kota) wants to get on to the chair of the Chief Minister and in this process, he hires a contract killer and gives him a list of names that have to be killed. However, he has a shock of his life when he gets news from the killer that someone else is already on the job without his involvement. Sathyam is given the assignment of nabbing the culprit and finally he manages to arrest Prathap (Upendra) who ironically is an ex cop himself but then he does not believe in the law system since he gets betrayed professionally. The ideology clash between Sathyam and Pratap goes to a peak and then the hero decides to put an end to this by proving his point. Is he successful in his mission? What is the link between Divya (Nayantara) the crime reporter and him? All this forms the rest of the story.


Presentation:

The director has come up with a wafer thin plot and though his presentation was good, the narration lost out big time and it turned out to be pathetic. The dialogues are stale, the script is feeble, the screenplay has not been executed perfectly. The saving grace for the movie is the above average music with some soulful tunes and the cinematography was eye catching. The costumes department was decent and the frontline sectors failed miserably.


Vishal is impressive in his new muscular look and looked like the perfect cop guess that's one reason why he looked stiff at few scenes, Nayan on the other hand was oozing out glamour in the songs but then she was totally decked up during the movie so her role is actually negligible. Upendra did his bit to give an anti hero feeling but his role was not well etched, Kota did a brilliant performance while the comedy track between Ali and Brahmanandam looked silly. The others did not have much scope to perform so they are not in the list.


Conclusion:

It was a well thought out idea to bring about two cops with different perceptions but then enough fuel needs to be filled to bring out the intensity in characters which was missing completely. While the first half goes about in the regular dull mode without much to offer, a twist comes before the interval which rises expectations but then the second half also turned out to be a disappointment as nothing much was there in it. The inclusion of songs at wrong situations was another disturbance which really irked the audience. It is very hard for the movie to live up to the hype created but it might just make its money given the steamy song USP and the presence of Vishal and Nayan.

NO TELUGU ACTOR FOR RUDRAKSHA'S LEAD ROLES

Krishnavamsi's 'Rudraksha' has an interesting lead

Ace film maker Krishnavamsi who recently announced that he would be making a film with chocolate boy Tarun and the bubbly Genelia has now made another announcement. His next venture after that would be 'Rudraksha' and the lead cast has been very interesting.

Film is based on the conflict between god and the evil. The film will be made simultaneously in Telugu and Tamil. The film has been tentatively titled as Rudraksha.It is heard that Krishnavamsi has roped in Tamil hero Sarath Kumar, Kannada hero Upendra, the sizzling beauty Shriya for the lead roles. While Shriya's presence is fine, one really wonders what the secret is behind not taking any Telugu stars for the lead role.

Sunkara Madhumurali will produce the film under the Sri Karthikeya Creations banner. GV Prakash, nephew of AR Rehman will score the music for the film.RD Rajasekhar was selected to provide cinematography.

UPENDRA

Upendra (born 18 September 1967) is a Kannada cinema director, actor and script writer. Born in a lower middle classs family, Upendra started his career off with film director Kashinath as a writer and an assistant director. His first directional venture was 'Tharle Nanmaga'.

In the late 90's he broke into the scene with the extremely violent Om, which also starred actual Bangalore gangsters. He followed this up with A, in which he starred. Upendra, his next film, starred Raveena Tandon, a popular Bollywood actress.Films acted and directed by him "A" and "Upendra" can be said to be excellent.These two films explores human emotions in a new dimension. It portrays how humans change according to situation,self becomes above all at that time.Technically these movies are good by any standards.Upendra's script writing skills can be seen in narration and flow of these films. Narration of his movies are unusual in the film making context.

Career as a Director

Uppi scored an awesome success as a director with his maiden venture 'Tharle Nanmaga'. This film was Jaggesh's first movie as a lead actor. This cult hit is popular even today for its slap stick comedy and out-of the box narration. His second movie 'Sshhh' with Kumar Govindu in the lead was another box of success. This surprise suspense thriller also starred Kashinath and introduced Kumar Govindu as main stream hero. Interestingly it has small cameo by Uppi as a brashly youth in police costume.

Filmography

Director

* Tharle Nan Maga
* Sshhh
* Om
* Operation Antha
* A (1998)
* Swasthik(1999)
* Upendra

Actor

* Ananthana Avanthara
* Shhh
* Operation Antha
* A
* Upendra
* Preethse
* H2O
* Superstar
* Nagarahavu
* Naanu Naane
* Hollywood
* Kutumba
* Raktha Kanneru
* Omkara
* Gokarna
* Gowramma
* News
* Autoshankar
* Uppi Daada MBBS
* Tandege Takka Maga
* Aishwarya
* Parodi
* Masti
* Lavakusha
* Anatharu
* Bhimoos Bang Bang Kids

Other languages

* Sathyam (2007) Tamil
* Toss(2007) Telugu
* Kaveri (Tamil)
* Raa (Telugu)
* Sarpa
* Neethone Vuntanu (Telugu)
* H2O (Telugu)