The entry of Rajkumar, the doyen of Kannada cinema, was a landmark of 1950s.  He first acted in a lead role in a mythological movie Bedara Kannappa .The film like earlier ones received huge popular support and Rajkumar in  Kannada movie world was destined for a super star. 

The golden age of Kannada cinema started from 1970.During this time art films were produced in line with Bengali and Malayalam movies. Chomana Dudi which dealt with Indian cast system was a remarkable parallel film of B V Karnath. Another stalwart Girish Karnad arrived in the Knnada filmdom in this period.

 Girish Karnad’s  Kaadu (1973) is a new addition to Kannada parallel cinema history. His other notables were Ondanondu Kaladalit (1978), M S Sathu’s Kanneshwara Rama,  (1977), Chitegu Chinthe ( 1978) and Pattabhi Rama Reddy’s Samaskara .

Eminent director Girish Kasaravalli is another new wave filmmaker who produced some award winning movies. Those include Ghatha Shraddha which won National Award in 1977 for best film, Akramana  (1979), Mooru Dharigalu (1981), Tabaran Kathe ( 1987), Bannadha Vesha (1989), Mane ( 1989), Kraurva (1996), Taavi Saheeba ( 1998) and Dweepa ( 2002).

Puttaanna Kanagal made a new effort of bridging the gap between the parallel cinema and commercial movies. For his this effort, he is widely held as the best director of Kannada films. His remarkable movies include Bellimoda, Gejje Pooje, Sharpanjara Sakhshtkara and Nagara Havu. All his films were huge hits, some won awards.
About the present state of affairs, 2005 was a successful year of the Kannada film industry. It made hug business during the year. Films like Jogi, Anna Tangi, Namma Basava, and Deadly Soma made huge box office collections. However, 2006 proved to be a disaster. Forty-nine of fifty films produced during the year were flops.
It is no use crying baby. Kannada film industry is trying hard to stage a come back in 2007. With its large basket of successful and award winning movies, the Kannada filmmakers can easily get over the crisis and produce some outstanding movies for the cine buffs.