# Sunil Kumar Desai

Sunil Kumar Desai is an Indian film director, writer and producer, known for his work in Kannada cinema. In most of his films, Desai blends art and commercial cinema. He has written and directed Thrillers and Romance films. He has won the Karnataka State Film Awards (4 times) in the Best Screenplay & Best Dialogues categories. He has also won the Filmfare awards 4 times. Desai worked with South Indian musicians like Illayaraja, Hamsalekha and Gunasingh.

## Early life

Desai was born in 1955 in Bijapur, Karnataka. He had his primary education in Bijapur and higher education in Pune. He started his film-career as an assistant to Kashinath, and later Suresh Heblikar.

## Career

Desai made film debut as a director with Tarka in 1989. His subsequent films Nishkarsha, Beladingala Baale and Nammoora Mandara Hoove earned him a reputation as the most innovative and influential directors of the 1990s. After three years of absence, Desai had announced that he has four films up his sleeve one of which is due at the end of 2019.

## Filmography

Key :
| † | Denotes films that have not yet been released |
| Year | Title | Cast | Notes |
| 1989 | Tarka | Shankar Nag, Vanitha Vasu, Avinash, Krishna | Karnataka State Film Award for Best Screenplay Filmfare Award for Best Director – Kannada |
| 1990 | Utkarsha | Devaraj, Ambareesh, Vanitha Vasu, Ramakrishna | |
| 1993 | Sangharsha | Vishnuvardhan, Geetha, Sundar Krishna Urs, Thiagarajan, R. N. Sudarshan, B. C. Patil,Rockline Venkatesh, | |
| 1994 | Nishkarsha | Vishnuvardhan, B. C. Patil, Ananth Nag, Suman Nagrkar, Ramesh Bhat, Praksh Raju, Avinash | Karnataka State Film Award for First Best Film Karnataka State Film Award for Best Screenplay |
| 1995 | Beladingala Baale | Ananth Nag, Ramesh Bhat, Lokanath, Shivaram, Avinash, Vanitha Vasu, Suman Nagarkar, Kishori Ballal, B. C. Patil | Karnataka State Film Award for Third Best Film Karnataka State Film Award for Best Dialogue Filmfare Award for Best Director – Kannada |
| 1996 | Nammoora Mandara Hoove | Shiva Rajkumar, Ramesh Arvind, Prema, Suman Nagarkar, Renukamma Murugodu, Sanketh Kashi, Ramesh Bhat, Kishori Ballal, Avinash | |
| 1998 | Prema Raga Haadu Gelathi | Shiva Rajkumar, Ramesh Aravind, Nivedita Jain, Srinath, Lokesh, Loknath, Vaishali Kasaravalli, Sihi Kahi Chandru | |
| 1999 | Prathyartha | Ramesh Aravind, Raghuvaran, Girish Karnad, Sudeep, Avinash, Shivaram, Kashi, Vinayak Joshi | Karnataka State Film Award for Best Screenplay |
| 2000 | Sparsha | Sudeep, Sudha Rani, Rekha, Naveen Mayur, Sihi Kahi Chandru, Sanketh Kashi, Umashree, Kishori Ballal. | Filmfare Award for Best Director – Kannada |
| 2002 | Parva | Vishnuvardhan, Prema, Roja, Keremane Shivarama Hegde, Kishori Ballal, Sparsha Rekha, | |
| 2002 | Marma | Prema, Anand, Arun Sagar, Kishori Ballal, Yashwant Sardeshpande | |
| 2006 | Ramya Chaitrakaala | Rahul Ainapur, Nanditha, Manasi Parashar, Sandeep | |
| 2007 | Kshana Kshana | Aditya, Dr. Vishnuvardhan, Prema, Kiran Rathod, Dileep Raj, Kishore, Ashutosh Rana, Sridevika | |
| 2016 | ...Re | Ramesh Aravind, Anant Nag, Harshika Poonacha,Ramesh Bhat, Master Hirannaiah, Loknath, G. K. Govinda Rao | |
| 2019 | Udgharsha | Thakur Anoop Singh, Dhansika, Tanya Hope, Harshika Poonacha, Kabir Duhan Singh, Shraddha Das, Prabhakar, Kishore, Vamsi Krishna | |