Cinema of Karnataka

Kannada Cinema, colloquially referred to as Chandanavana or the Sandalwood, is a part of Indian cinema, where motion pictures are produced in the Kannada language. As of 2013, The Kannada film industry based in Bengaluru, Karnataka, produces more than 100 films each year. Although the industry's Gross Box-office is smaller, when compared to large market driven industries such as Tamil cinema and Telugu cinema, Kannada films are released in a total of 950 single screen theatres in Karnataka and a handful of the movies are also released in the United States, Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom and other countries.

The first government institute in India to start technical courses related to films was established in 1941 named as occupational institute then named as S. J. Polytechnic in Bengaluru. In September 1996, two specialized courses Cinematography and Sound & Television were separated and a new Institute Government Film and Television Institute was started at Hesaraghatta, under the World Bank Assisted Project for Technician Development in India. The industry is known for Kannada language literary works, being translated into motion pictures, some of the works which received global acclaim include, B. V. Karanth's Chomana Dudi (1975), Girish Karnad's Kaadu (1973), Pattabhirama Reddy's Samskara (1970) (based on a novel by U. R. Ananthamurthy), which won Bronze Leopard at Locarno International Film Festival, and Girish Kasaravalli's Ghatashraddha (1977) which won Ducats Award at the Manneham Film Festival Germany.