The Kannada film industry, commonly known as Sandalwood has completed 80 years on Monday, 3 March 2014. To celebrate these glorious years of history, the Karnataka Chalanachithra Academy (KCA) organised a three-day exhibition, which showcased rare movie stills from Kannada films.
Cinema in the Kannada language began with the movie titled as "Sathi Sulochana". This first Kannada talkie was released on 3 March 1934 and since then the industry has grown by leaps and bounds. Like other industries, Sandalwood too has gone been through different ages in our history.
There have been tons of movies produced every year and each in their own way try to bring out the culture of the state. On this anniversary, the Postal department launched a special cover to mark this special day in the Kannada history, reported The Times of India.
A prominent image of Subbaiah Naidu from "Sathi Sulochana" is featured on the postal cover, which is titled 80 Kannada Vakchitra, 1934-2014. Apart from this, the cover also features pictures of famous Kannada actors Vishnuvardhan and Rajkumar and director Puttanna Kanagal.
This special postal cover was designed by S Dhanraj, and also included copies of stills from eight Kannada films, which have won national awards till now. Even though the special postal cover is something that many maybe proud of, there were a few stars who were not satisfied. We hear that actors Srinagara Kitty and Shivaram and also the Karnataka Chamber of Commerce President HD Gangaraju were not happy to see many faces missing in the cover. They felt that there are more Kannada artistes and legends who deserved to be there in the stamp.
Gangaraju had reportedly requested Veena Srinivas, postmaster general to release stamps featuring the other legends of Sandalwood. However Srinivas clarified that living legends are not included on the stamps. "Anyone can send a proposal to us to bring out such stamps but the decision is taken by the central government and the philatelic committee in Delhi. However, there is no limit on special covers and definitive stamps. We don't bring out stamps on living legends. But this rule was waived in the case of cricketer Sachin Tendulkar," TOI quoted her.
