Last week, on the birth anniversary of actor Vishnuvardhan, a digitally remastered version of the classic 1993 film Nishkarsha was released in Kannada and Hindi in a fitting tribute to the actor's legacy.
For those who grew up in the '90s watching Kannada films, Nishkarsha was our introduction to heist thrillers like Die Hard and The Italian Job.
The plot revolves around an attempted bank robbery in which terrorists take hostages inside the bank. It follows the trials and tribulations of the police commissioner (Anant Nag) and the commando of the anti-terrorist squad (Vishnuvardhan) who try to free the hostages and capture the terrorists. Suman Nagarkar plays the role of a bank employee and Prakash Raj is one of the anti-terrorist commandos.
Suman's character is sexually assaulted by one of the terrorists and the actor recently said in an interview that she has not done such a "powerful" role since. She also praised "the subtle yet powerful manner in which the scene was shot.”
Guru Kiran is part of the film's cast too, but apart from holding the gun as one of the terrorists, he did not have a major role. This was much before he went on to become one of the leading music directors in the Kannada film industry.
Interestingly, BC Patil was cast as the leader of the terrorist group in what was his debut film. At the time, he was a police official in Davanagere with no prior acting experience in films. In an interview, the director of the film Sunil Kumar Desai, revealed that he watched BC Patil in a play in which he portrayed the role of Tipu Sultan and had decided that he was the right fit for the film. However, he made BC Patil remove his mustache due to the latter's habit of twirling it constantly. BC Patil was involved in restoring the film in digitial form. He has also been elected as the MLA of Hirekerur constituency in Haveri district three times. He was one of the rebel MLAs of the Congress who resigned from their positions and triggered the collapse of the JD(S)- Congress coalition government earlier this year.
The film was shot almost entirely at the Manipal Centre off MG Road in Bengaluru, which was the location of the bank. The narrative delves into the struggles faced by the characters inside and outside the bank. In a particularly memorable scene, a flock of pigeons is released into the sky to divert the attention of the terrorists on the top floor. This is done so that commando Ajay (Vishnuvardhan) can switch with a lookalike and take charge of the plan to free the hostages and stop Devraj (BC Patil) from taking the money in the bank.
Sunil Kumar later revealed that the idea of releasing pigeons to cause the distraction was finalised only on the sets of the film, and that he took almost eight days to decide on the pigeons. "A few suggested the idea of flying balloons or creating smoke. One day, I saw two pigeons on the top floor and that triggered an idea,” Sunil said speaking to Deccan Herald. A resident of Shivajinagar in Bengaluru brought along 150 pigeons to be used in the scene.
The film had a 100-day theatrical run. However, initially, many theatres in Bengaluru refused to screen the film because it did not have any songs (which was unusual in films made at that time) but Sunil Kumar managed to convince the owners of Santosh theatre in Gandhinagar to do so. As it turned out, the film continued to run for more than 75 days and was eventually replaced by Odahuttidavaru, starring Dr. Rajkumar. Nishkarsha was shifted to Triveni theater and continued to run for over 100 days
Few films from the Kannada industry can be compared to Nishkarsha. The film stuck to its premise of telling a gripping two-and-a-half-hour heist story set in central Bengaluru. The film's realistic execution set it apart from its peers and captured the imagination of young and old viewers. It was inspired by Die Hard and was one of the first films to explore the genre of a suspense thriller in Kannada film history.
Years after its release, the film has been played and re-played on television channels in the state, capturing film lovers who were too young to have caught it in theatres. With the digitally remastered version releasing, there's no doubt that Nishkarsha will gain new fans from later generations too.