Gandhada Gudi

Kumar(Rajkumar) is a range forest officer who goes to the Nagarhole National forest to protect the natural resources. His main rival is the poacher Anand (Vishnuvardhan) who unknown to him has been kidnapped and raised by Raja Venkatappa Nayaka (Balakrishna) to exact revenge on his father. In the final scenes, Anand gets hold of Kumar's mother and asks him to not interfere or that he will set fire to the forest. But Kumar shoots Anand, fatally injuring him in the chest. Venkatappa then comes in climax and reveals that Anand is Kumar's younger brother and he had done this to take revenge on his family. He tries to kill Kumar, but Anand kills venkatappa and dies on the lap of his mother.

• Rajkumar as Kumar, a forest range officer
• Vishnuvardhan as Anand
• Kalpana as Lakshmi
• M. P. Shankar as Johnny
• Narasimharaju as Shivaji
• Balakrishna as Venkatappa Nayaka
• Advani Lakshmi Devi as Parvathamma
• Thoogudeepa Srinivas
• B. Jaya

The film has brilliant cinematography of the Nagarhole and Bandipur forest in Mysore which is the seat of the royal family of Karnataka. The entire cast has given excellent dimensions to their role.

During the shooting of the film where Vishuarvadan's character "shoots" Rajkumar's character's mother, the prop gun was accidentally switched to a real gun. Prabakaran, a forest ranger who realised someone took the gun, ran to the shooting spot to avert untoward incident.[7][8] Just as Vishnuvardhan was about to pull the trigger, Prabakaran begged for him to stop.[9] The incident caused trauma for Vishuvardan who got death threats from Rajkumar fans .[10][11] Despite this, both Rajkumar and Vishuvardhan remained on good terms afterwards.[12]

Music for the film and soundtracks were composed by the duo Rajan-Nagendra.

Gandhada Gudi was a box office-hit, which fetched around ₹3.5 million (US$49,000) in 1973. The title song, filmed on Karnataka and Kannada is still popular among the Kannadigas. The song can be heard even today on any festival or function in Karnataka.[13]

The sequel to Gandhada Gudi had Dr Shivarajkumar in the role of a forest officer who is posted in the same forest where his father has created a history. His character now has to carry his father's mission and protect the forest.

Many considered the sequel to be a disappointment when compared to the legacy of the original.

The film which speaks about the preservation of forests inspired other Kannada films – Jayasimha, Mrugalaya and Maasti Gudi. Also Gandhada Gudi is the first Indian movie made on the concept of forest conservation.[14]

• Bandipur National Park
• Nagarhole National Park

• Gandhada Gudi at IMDb