Gandhada Gudi (1973) - A misfire that almost hurt Dr. Vishnuvardhan too much

Gandhada Gudi is a film centred on the concept of legacy. On one hand, it traverses the real and mesmeric natural beauty of Karnataka as Puneeth Rajkumar and director J.S. Amoghavarsha unravel the vast physical heritage of the state. On the other hand, the title of the film also refers to the 1973 film of the name starring the two stalwarts of Kannada Cinema, Dr. Rajkumar and Dr. Vishnvardhan. A cult classic in myriad ways, Gandhada Gudi (1973) marked Dr. Raj’s 150th film and quite interestingly, ended up being the only on-screen collaboration between the two superstar actors.

Although the reasons for the latter do not allude to anything controversial, a particular incident that occurred on the sets of Gandhada Gudi is said to have created an apparent divide between the two. Vishnuvardhan, who was only a few films old at the time, was cast to play Rajkumar’s estranged brother in the film and much of the film’s story revolved around the cat-and-mouse chase between them. And in the climax, Vishnuvardhan was required to fire a gun at his on-screen elder brother and by design, the weapon was supposed to be a prop one but, as luck would have it, an innocuous mistake from one of the assistants handed a real gun to Vishnuvardhan. Unbeknownst to him, that he was indeed carrying a gun with real bullets, the Naagarahaavu actor would fire at Dr. Rajkumar and fortunately miss him. aim. When the news of this mishap came to public light, things blew out of proportion without any forewarning.

Many believed at the time that Vishnuvardhan, a budding superstar in his own right, used a real gun on purpose and that he carried the intention to cause harm to the living legend. Despite his vehement claims that it was all an accident, fans hounded the young actor and the entire incident threatened to ruin his promising career. So much so that, reportedly, Vishnuvardhan decided to move to Chennai to stay from the furore until the chief minister of the time, Gundu Rao, and Jeevaraj Alva implored him to return to Bengaluru. While Dr. Rajkumar and Vishnuvardhan moved past the incident and remained on the best of terms, many continued to breathe life into the rumour over the years.

As far as Gandhada Gudi is concerned, the film went on to become a massive commercial success with many lauding the technical merits of the film. The film ran in theatres for 25 weeks and prompted remakes in Telugu (as Adavi Ramudu starring NTR, Kartavya in Hindi, and a dubbed version in Malayalam titled Chandana Kaadu).