''Ratnaja'' is a Kannada movie writer and director. He debuted his career as a director with the 2005 hit movie

Nenapirali '' Nenapirali '' is a 2005 Indian Kannada language film directed by Ratnaja. It stars Prem Kumar, Vidhya Venkatesh and Varsha. The supporting cast features Naveen Krishna, Ananth Nag, Jai Jagadish, Vijayalakshmi Singh and Vinaya Prasad. At the ...

which won four awards at the 2005-06 Karnataka State Film Awards, including the Best Director award.

Early life and background

Ratnaja was a Mechanical Engineering student at the National College of Engineering,

Mysuru Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...

. Ratnaja then trained under many acclaimed directors like

Dinesh Baboo Dinesh Baboo (also known as Dinesh Babu) is an Indian film director, cinematographer, actor and screenwriter who works predominantly in Kannada cinema. In a career spanning five decades he has directed more than 40 films, filmed more than 20 fil ...

and SV Rajendra Singh Baboo for five years as assistant.

Career

Ratnaja began his direction career with the film

. The film starred four relatively fresh faces - Prem Kumar who received a new lease of life with this movie, Naveen Krishna,

Vidya Venkatesh Vidhya Venkatesh is an Indian actress who has appeared in Tamil and Kannada language films. After making her debut with Kamal Haasan in the Tamil film '' Panchathanthiram'' (2002), she won critical acclaim for her performances in Kannada mov ...

and Varsha. Nenapirali focused on the youth and their confusion about love, and was critically and commercially a success. The film won awards at the Filmfare Awards that year (2005–06), and also picked up a couple of State Awards. Ratnaja was called, by certain quarters, as Kannada's ''

Mani Ratnam Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956), known professionally as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema and few Hindi, Telugu and Kannada films. Ratnam has won six Nat ...

''. His next film was called ''

Honganasu ''Honganasu'' is a 2008 Indian Kannada-language romance film written and directed by Ratnaja of '' Nenapirali'' fame. The film stars Prem Kumar in lead role whereas debutant Anjali and Anuradha Mehta play the female leads. Ananth Nag plays a ...

''. He repeated the same leads - Prem and Naveen Krishna. The film also had music by the maestro

Hamsalekha Gangaraju (born June 23, 1951), professionally known as Hamsalekha, is an Indian film composer and a songwriter who works in South Indian cinema, predominantly in the Kannada film industry since the late 1980s. He is also a screenplay writer, di ...

. The film released in early 2008 amidst much fanfare, but it failed to live up to expectations of both critics and audience. The criticism leveled against Ratnaja was weak narration, and the audience refused to humour the film. Ratnaja later made a film titled ''

Premism ''Premism'' ( kn, ಪ್ರೇಮಿಸಂ) is a 2010 Indian Kannada language romantic film directed by Ratnaja of '' Nenapirali'' fame. He has teamed up yet again with producer Ajay Gowda and music director Hamsalekha for the third time after ...

'' which again was not very well received by the audience. His next film is titled ''

Preethiyalli Sahaja ''Preethiyalli Sahaja'' is a 2016 Indian Kannada-language romantic film written and directed by Ratnaja. The film is produced by R. S. Gnaanesh and M. L. Venkatesh under GVK Cinemas banner. The film stars newcomer Surya, Raghu Mukherjee, Avant ...

'' and is expected to release in 2016.

Filmography

References

{{Authority control Kannada film directors Filmfare Awards South winners 21st-century Indian film directors

Early life and background

Career

Filmography

See also

References