‘Yella Ok. Bari Acting Yake’ is what most of the Kannada film stars asked Upendra on a live dial-in chat show today. In the last 10 years we have seen Upendra take on different roles as an actor. His fan following is still strong. However, everyone of his fan was probably also wondering when would he get back into what he does best – direction.

Upendra began his career as a director with Tarale Nanmaga that also launched Jaggesh and created waves for its slapstick comedy. I had not watched the movie until last week and I must say I was impressed with his creativity from the very first shot. Then there was Shhh, a suspense thriller in Kannada which again created waves in the industry. I remember, a friend of my cousin was somehow contributing to this film. I don’t exactly know his role. But then, when the shooting was on, we had left our Maruti Omni at my cousin’s place and had gone to Kundapur. When we got back, we heard that the car was used in the film. I was just so happy then. Both the above film ran for 100 days, I think.

Then there was the Shivraj Kumar starrer Om. This exposed Upendra’s talent to a larger group. Wikipedia says the movie ran for 2 years. I am not sure if it did, but I know that the film rose to fame for various reasons – direction, action, seeing actual gangsters act and its music. I became a fan of Upendra then. Then there was Operation Antha, A and Upendra. Along with his, he had launched many names – Gurukiran, Akash Audio, Kumar Govind, Sadu Kokila and many more.

Post this, Upendra got into acting and let direction take a back seat. Since then every single member of the industry and every fan has waited eagerly for him to get back into direction. And now he’s back with ‘Super’. Well, being the creative genius that he is, he has not revealed the name of the movie. He has just launched the symbol of a hand with folded fingers that represent calmness or signal something brilliant. Hence, most people call it Super. Produced by Rockline Venkatesh (one of Kannada’s finest producers), the film surely has a lot of curiosity built around it. People are wondering what Upendra would do now. He has proved his worth time and again as a director. If he’s getting back after 10 years then he must have something ‘super’ to give to his audience.

During the chat show various actors and directors called to speak to Upendra. Veteran actor Ambareesh, Sudeep, Sadu Kokila, Shivraj Kumar and Rockline Venkatesh were amongst a few. Rockline narrated this incident where he had a brief discussion with the reputed Tamil filmmaker Shankar about 8 years ago. Apparently Shankar spoke very high of Upendra then. Rockline was also narrating how good a director Upendra is. It was surely a mutual admiration environment that was created in the studio of the TV channel. But I think Upendra deserves all the praise.

Super has the popular Nayantara in the lead role opposite Upendra. Tulip Joshi and Sadu Kokila are among the other actors. This time around music has been given by Harikrishna. Various people have penned the lyrics including Yograj Bhat and Upendra. The audio is expected to be launched on the 21^st of November and will be launched under the same Akash Audio banner. I know I will pick my copy up and first listen to the tracks that have been written by Yograj Bhat and Upendra. Wonder what happens when 2 such great people work together.

Super is due for release in December. I know people are going to throng the theatres. I’m not sure how many girls would go, considering Upendra has built an image for his own self and that particular image is not really liked by women. Well, I’m not like the others. I admire creativity and art. Hence I love Upendra. I’m positive that the Super is going to be super. Good luck Uppi!