Chitraloka.com is an Indian online portal for the

Kannada film industry Kannada cinema, also known as Sandalwood, or Chandanavana, is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Kannada language widely spoken in the state of Karnataka. The 1934 film '' Sati Sulochana'' directe ...

. The website was launched on 3 July 1999 by K. M. Veeresh, and it was the first website to be solely focused on Kannada cinema. The website is available both in English and Kannada. This website and Viggy.com were the only two websites that gave frequent updates regarding Kannada cinema in the first half of the early 2000s.

History

While on vacation in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, photographer and journalist K. M. Veeresh realised that he could not get regular updates on Kannada cinema easily and had to call his friends to be up to date. After getting a

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

, he decided to start his own website for news pertaining to Kannada cinema with the target audience primarily being Kannadigas overseas in the Gulf and the United States. Veeresh found it tough to get software to run the website in Kannada. The website was launched in 1999 with

Parvathamma Rajkumar Dr.Parvathamma Rajkumar (6 December 1939 – 31 May 2017) was an Indian film producer and distributor. She was the wife of veteran Kannada actor Dr. Rajkumar. She produced successful films featuring Rajkumar and their sons Shiva Rajkumar, Punee ...

in attendance. On the day of launch, the website received 13,664 hits. After the launch of the website, it was run as a one-man show with Veeresh running the website of his own money and gets help when needed from his journalist friends. One year after launch, the Veeresh reported about the

kidnapping of Rajkumar Kannada film actor Rajkumar was abducted by Indian dacoit Veerappan on July 30, 2000, during the course of an armed attack on a farmhouse belonging to the actor in Gajanur, Tamil Nadu, India. Rajkumar was released by Veerappan on November 1 ...

in full detail on the website. The website was updated once every fifteen days at that time, but as of 2009, it is updated frequently. In 2009, the website entered the

Limca Book of Records The ''Limca Book of Records'' is an annual reference book published in India documenting world records held by Indians. The records are further categorized into education, literature, agriculture, medical science, business, sports, nature, advent ...

for showcasing three-thousand stills of Kannada films from ''Sati Sulochana'' (1935) and '' Namyajamanru'' (2009). In 2020, the

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channel for the website received the Silver Creator Award and is one of the only Kannada-language channels to do so.

References

{{Reflist Indian film websites Film review websites Internet properties established in 1999 Kannada cinema 1999 establishments in India