K.G.F: Chapter 1
Directed by Prashanth Neel
Written by Prashanth Neel
Produced by Vijay Kiragandur
Starring Yash Ramachandra Raju Srinidhi Shetty Anant Nag Achyuth Kumar
Cinematography Bhuvan Gowda
Edited by Srikanth Gowda
Music by Ravi Basrur
Production Hombale Films
company
Distributed by KRG Studios (Kannada) Excel Entertainment and AA Films (Hindi) Vishal Film Factory (Tamil) Vaaraahi Chalana Chitram (Telugu) Global United Media (Malayalam)
Release dates 20 December 2018 (United States & Canada) 21 December 2018 (India) Running time 155 minutes
Country India
Language Kannada
Budget ₹80 crore
Box office est. ₹250 crore
About
K.G.F: Chapter 1 is a 2018 Indian Kannada-language period action film[5] written and directed by Prashanth Neel, and produced by Vijay Kiragandur under the banner of Hombale Films. It is the first of two installments in the series, followed by K.G.F: Chapter 2. The film features Yash as Rocky while debutant Ramachandra Raju features as Garuda. Anant Nag narrates the film, while Srinidhi Shetty, Vasishta N. Simha, Achyuth Kumar, and Malavika Avinash appear in supporting roles. Filmed on a budget of ₹800 million (equivalent to ₹910 million or US$11 million in 2020), it was the most expensive Kannada film at the time of its release.[2] The film focuses on Rocky, a high-ranking assassin in Mumbai, who was born in poverty. After being offered the total control of Mumbai by his employer's boss, he disguises himself as a slave-laborer in the Narachi limestone mine (Kolar Gold Fields), aiming to assassinate Garuda, the future heir of Kolar Gold Fields. The film's development began in early 2015, after Neel finished writing the screenplay.[6] Filming began two years later, in January 2017. Most of the film is set in the Kolar Gold Fields and was filmed in locales such as Kolar, Mysore, and parts of North Karnataka. The film's production was completed in August 2018.[7] Bhuvan Gowda handled the cinematography and Srikanth Gowda edited the film. Composer Ravi Basrur scored the film.[8] The Kannada version of K.G.F: Chapter 1 was released on 20 December 2018 and the dubbed versions in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi released the next day.[9] The film received mixed reviews from critics; however, it performed well commercially and collected ₹2.5 billion (equivalent to ₹2.8 billion or US$36 million in 2020) in its entire theatrical run, becoming the highest-grossing Kannada film and turned out to be a cult hit.[10] At the 66th National Film Awards, the film won two awards for Best Action and Best Special Effects.[11] At the 66th Filmfare Awards South, the film won two awards from five nominations, including the award for Best Film and Best Actor for Yash.
Plot
Journalist Anand Ingalagi's book El Dorado, which detailed the events at the Kolar Gold Fields (K.G.F.) between 1951 and 2018, was banned by the Indian government, but a television news channel procures a copy and interviews him. In 1951, The Government officials discovered gold ore in southern Mysore State where on the same day, Raja Rocky Krishnappa Bairya was born to a poor underage woman Shanti. Suryavardhan, a powerful crime boss, who accompanied the official has them killed and leases the land for 99 years under the pretext of running Narachi, a limestone mine, but secretly establishes K.G.F. He had five associates: Kamal, son of Suryavardhan's former associate Bhargav; Rajendra Desai, who oversees the transportation of refined gold bars; Andrews, who oversees the gold smuggling in the Western Coast of the country; Guru Pandian, president of the in-government DYSS party; and Adheera, Suryavardhan's brother who headed the K.G.F. security. Suryavardhan suffers a paralysis and appoints his elder son Garuda the future heir of K.G.F. Suryavardhan expected Adheera to serve as his son's aide, but Adheera unsuccessfully attempts to assassinate Garuda. In turn, Garuda bombs Adheera's car and he is presumed dead. Suryavardhan's former associates now eye the riches of K.G.F. Rocky arrives in Bombay as a ten-year-old on a quest for wealth and power as desired by Shanti, and begins to work for Shetty, a gold smuggler and Andrews's underboss, who competes against a Dubai-based rival Inayat Khalil. Years later, he rises in the ranks and oversees the arrival of African gold bars to the Bombay coast. Rocky's influence begins to rival Shetty's own. Andrews, who notices about Rocky offers him Bombay in return for assassinating Garuda. Rocky accepts the offer and heads to Bangalore; he meets Desai's daughter Reena, falls in love with her and pursues her to accept him, much to her fiancée Kamal's chagrin. A statue inauguration is organised for luring Garuda out of K.G.F., but the attempt is averted even before it begins. Rocky witnesses the authority and power that Garuda commands. Seeing no other option to murder Garuda, Rocky journeys to K.G.F., killing a unit of Garuda's henchmen to enter. The workers in K.G.F., who were forcibly kidnapped, are subjected to inhumane conditions and treated as slaves. Rocky becomes one of them and although apathetic at first, he is moved by the cold-blooded murder of a mother and son by a guard. Rocky stealthily accesses the map of the mine in the maintenance room during a roll call and narrowly escapes death after a fellow slave sacrifices himself to save the lives of his wife and unborn child. Andrews, Kamal and Desai are misinformed about the incident and assume Rocky is killed. Rocky engages in a fight with an entire unit of twenty-three guards, killing each one of them to rescue a blind slave they were about to brutally murder. With this act, Rocky emerges as a messiah in the slaves' eyes. He orders them to burn the guards' corpses to let Andrews's and his men know he is still alive via their informants, Kulkarni and Garuda's younger brother Virat. Garuda prepares to leave his residence to investigate the fire and missing guards. To avert this, Virat smothers Suryavardhan to death, and Garuda rushes back home. Shaken by the recent bad turn of events, Garuda orders Maa Kaali's ritual to be rescheduled from the following week to the next day, planning to kill his father's allies as soon as the ritual is complete. At night, Rocky heads unsuspected through a tunnel to the site where Garuda has decided to behead three slaves as offerings to the goddess, as Vanaram discovers that the third slave is already killed in his prison cell. Upon Garuda's arrival and sacrifice of two slaves, a concealed Rocky, who had taken the third slave's place, emerges and kills him. Ingalagi concludes that Rocky intentionally chose KGF as the location to assassinate Garuda, so that an army of slaves would help him seize control and also indicates that this is just the beginning. The news of Garuda's murder reaches Ramika Sen, a no-nonsense politician. Adheera, who is actually alive, plans to resurface, and so does Khalil. The film ends with Vanaram ordering his men to attack Rocky and his army.
Trailer