K.G.F: Chapter 1 is a 2018 Indian Kannada-language period action film[5][6] written and directed by Prashanth Neel, and produced by Vijay Kiragandur under the banner Hombale films. It is the first installment in the two-part series, followed by K.G.F: Chapter 2. The film features Yash in the lead role as Rocky, while debutante Ramachandra Raju features as Garuda. Anant Nag narrates the film while Srinidhi Shetty, Vasishta N. Simha, Achyuth Kumar, Malavika Avinash appears in supporting roles. The film was made on a budget of ₹80 crore, making it the most expensive Kannada film at its time of release.[2]
The development of the film began in early 2015 when Neel completed writing the screenplay.[7] However, filming began only two years later, in 15 January 2017.[8] Most of the film is set in the Kolar Gold Fields and was filmed on locations such as Kolar, Mysore and parts of North Karnataka. The production of the film was completed on 17 August 2018.[9] Bhuvan Gowda handled the cinematography and Srikanth Gowda edited the film. Ravi Basrur scored music for the soundtrack and the film's background.[10]
After a North American premiere on 20 December 2018, K.G.F: Chapter 1 was released in Kannada and in dubbed versions of Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi languages the following day, and received positive response from audiences.[11] However, critics gave the film mixed reviews. The film performed well commercially and collected ₹250 crore in its entire theatrical run, breaking the record for the highest grossing Kannada film of all time.[12] At the 66th National Film Awards, the film won two awards for Best Action and Best Special Effects.[13] 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 respectively.[14]
Plot
Journalist Anand Ingalagi's book titled El Dorado that detailed the events at the Kolar Gold Fields between 1951 and 2018, has been banned by the Government of India and all published copies burnt. However, a television news channel procures a copy and interviews him circling the events he had cited.
Ingalagi narrates that ore of gold was discovered by commissioned government officials in the southern part of India's Mysore State (in present-day Kolar district, Karnataka) in 1951. Rocky is also born on the day of the discovery in the Mysore region, to a poor and widowed woman. Suryavardhan, a local don who accompanied the officials, kills them. Discerning the increasing demand for gold by the Cold War belligerents, Suryavardhan deceitfully sets up a company, Narachi, in that land, bought for a lease of 99 years under the pretext of mining limestone. He has five associates, all of whom operate away from KGF: Kamal, the son of a former associate Bharghav; Andrews ,Rajendra Desai - who oversee operations in the Konkan and Malabar Coasts; Guru Pandian, a powerful politician and president of the DYSS party; and brother Adheera. However, each of them has their eyes on the mines. Andrews' underboss Shetty is a gold smuggler in Bombay, the city that also has another smuggler, Dubai-based Inayat Khalil's eyes set on.
Rocky arrives in Bombay as a ten-year-old on a quest for power and wealth as desired by his dying mother and begins to work for Shetty. He becomes Shetty's right-hand man later and oversees the arrival of gold bars from Africa to the Bombay coast with an iron fist. Rocky soon rises in strength and power rivalling that of Shetty's. This attracts Andrews who offers him Bombay in return for assassinating Garuda, the elder son of Suryavardhan, who is to inherit KGF after his paralysed father's passing. Rocky accepts the offer and heads to Bangalore where an event is staged for the purpose. Once there, he witnesses the sheer presence, authority and power that Garuda commands and has the attempt averted.
In 1978, at the KGF, a bedridden Suryavardhan announces Garuda as his successor overlooking Adheera, who he wants to serve as the former's aide. Garuda's ruthless way of functioning aided by his commander Vanaram comes to fore. Rocky soon makes his way into KGF evading a unit of henchmen. Once there, he witnesses the brutality that the slaves are subjected to. Although apathetic at first, he is moved by a couple of incidents involving a cold-blooded killing of a mother and son at the hands of an overseer and the slaves' children hoping that he rises to liberate them. Beginning his attempt at it and to indicate to Desai and his men through informants, Kulkarni and Garuda's virtuous brother Virat, that he was alive, as planned, Rocky engages in a fight with a unit of twenty-three overseers killing each one of them in order to save a blind slave they were to kill. With the act, Rocky emerges as a hero in the slaves' eyes.
An alerted Vanaram now informs Garuda who heads toward the mines from his palatial residence. To avert thousands of slaves being killed due to his wrath, Virat smothers father Suryavardhan to death and sidetracks Garuda, who rushes back home. At the mines, Rocky seizes the opportunity, conspires and unsuspectingly heads through a tunnel to the site where Garuda has decided to behead three slaves as offerings to a deity. Simultaneously, Vanaram discovers that the third slave to be beheaded is still inside the palace; realization dawns on him that an imposter who plans to kill Garuda has taken his place. Vanaram rushes towards the site of the sacrifice, but he is too late. Upon Garuda's return to the site and sacrifice of two slaves, a concealed Rocky emerges and beheads him. The ecstatic slaves accept him as their leader as they cheer him on. The narrator concludes that Rocky intentionally chose KGF as the site to assassinate Garuda, thereby inspiring an army of slaves to seize KGF. However the narrator indicates that this is just the beginning. As Vanaram orders his men to attack Rocky and his army, a gunshot is fired and the movie cuts to black foreshadowing part-2.
