Kurukshetra

Kurukshetra is a 2019 Indian Kannada-language mythological war film[2][3] written by J. K. Bharavi and directed by Naganna. The story is based on the epic poem Gadhayuddha by Ranna,[4][5][6] which itself is based on the Indian epic Mahabharata.[7][8] The story is centred on Duryodhana, the Kaurava king.[9] The film was produced by Munirathna.[10]

The film features an ensemble cast including Darshan, Ambareesh (his final role), V. Ravichandran, P. Ravishankar, Arjun Sarja, Meghana Raj, Sneha, Sonu Sood, Danish Akhtar Saifi, Nikhil Kumar , Haripriya and Shashikumar, portraying characters from Mahabharata.[11] The score and soundtrack for the film is composed by V. Harikrishna whilst it has cinematography by Jayanan Vincent.[12]

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.[13]

The story is a reinterpretation of the war described in the Mahabharata Sanskrit epic, from Duryodhana’s viewpoint.[14] 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.

The official launch of the film was held on 6 August 2017 with filming beginning on the same day.[15] A major portion of the film was shot at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad.[16] The film was shot twice, first in 2D and then in 3D formats, with the shooting completing after more than 230 days.[17] A few scenes and dialogues were reported to have been inspired by the 1977 Telugu movie Daana Veera Soora Karna.[18][19]

Music director V. Harikrishna was commissioned to compose the film’s score. Lahari Music, which bagged the film’s audio rights for ₹1.5 crore, launched the soundtrack on 7 July 2019.[20] The first song, “Saahore Saaho”, was released on 5 July 2019.