Namma Kannada Nadu

Ganapathi Venkatrama Iyer , known as G. V. Iyer - A saint who walked alone, was a well known Indian film director and actor. He was nicknamed "Kannada Bheeshma", and was the only person who made movies in Sanskrit. Born in 1917 in Nanjanagud in Mysore he started his career at the age of eight when he joined the Gubbi Veeranna theatre group. His first role as an actor in cinema was in the film Radharamana. Besides this he acted in a number of other movies such as Mahakavi Kalidasa, Sodhari, Hemavati, Hari Bhaktha and Bedara Kannapa .

G.V. Iyer is a class by himself, maybe an anachronism in the film world. He came from the old school but successfully adapted himself to the new ways of filmmaking. With absolutely no formal education, he joined the professional theatre at a very early age. When he made India's first Sanskrit film,Adi Shankaracharya and won the Golden Lotus, he stunned the entire film world. The movie also received the National Film Awards for Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Audiography and has been known as a master piece. It is believed that the movie made a great impact on Iyer. It was remarked that he stopped wearing footwear after making the movie.

He later went on to make a movie on Madhvacharya in Kannada and Ramanujacharya in Tamil. He also made a remarkable Sanskrit movie Bhagawad Gita (1993), which won Best Film at the National Film Awards of 1993. The film was also nominated for Best Film at the Bogota Film Festival.

Some of his later ventures were flops but Iyer realised that he should adapt himself to the changing trends of fim making. His metamorphosis is one of the miracles of the Kannada film industry. He learned the technique of filmmaking through observation and serious study of literature on the film craft. He took the industry by surprise by producing the award winning Vamsavrukhsha in 1972. This film, a joint effort by three brilliant minds - Iyer, B. V. Karanth and Girish Karnad - ran for 25 weeks in morning shows. By then, he was a completely changed man who came to acquire a new concern for the medium. Hamsageethe (1977) was a milestone in his career. A musical with just 12 minutes of dialogue, the film had musical score by the doyen of Carnatic music Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna who was incidentally the music director for both Bhagvad Gita and Madhvacharya. Balamurali walked away with a national award each time he scored music for Iyer's films.

Iyer also made a few teleserials like Shantala (26 episodes) for Doordarshan but unfortunately DD botched it up by scheduling for telecast at midnight. Then he made two more serials, Krishna Leela and Kadambari and had started work on his most ambitious venture, another film in Sanskrit, Ramayana.

The crowning glory of Kannada cinema , G.V.Iyer died of kidney infection at Mumbai on Sunday 21st Dec 2003 at 6 pm.

All his friends had one lament: "He didn't get the Dadasaheb Phalke, not even a Padma Shri, though his contribution to the film world is unparalleled. We hope the state government will take it up with the Centre and at least get him a posthumous award."

But what he left behind in terms of footage will be abundantly useful for the serious students of Indian cinema.