K.G.F: Chapter 1

K.G.F: Chapter 1 is a 2018 Indian Kannada-language period action film written and directed by Prashanth Neel, and produced by Vijay Kiragandur under the banner Hombale films. It is the first installment in the two-part series, followed by K.G.F: Chapter 2. The film features Yash in the lead role as Rocky, while debutante Ramachandra Raju features as Garuda. Anant Nag narrates the film while Srinidhi Shetty, Vasishta N. Simha, Achyuth Kumar, Malavika Avinash appears in supporting roles.The film was made on a budget of ₹80 crore, making it the most expensive Kannada film at its time of release.

The development of the film began in early 2015 when Neel completed writing the screenplay. However, filming began only two years later, on 15 January 2017. Most of the film is set in the Kolar Gold Fields and was filmed on locations such as Kolar, Mysore and parts of North Karnataka. The production of the film was completed on 17 August 2018. Bhuvan Gowda handled the cinematography and Srikanth Gowda edited the film. Ravi Basrur scored music for the soundtrack and the film’s background.

After a North American premiere on 20 December 2018, K.G.F: Chapter 1 was released in Kannada and in dubbed versions of Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi languages the following day, and received positive response from audiences. However, critics gave the film mixed reviews. The film performed well commercially and collected ₹250 crore in its entire theatrical run, breaking the record for the highest grossing Kannada film of all time. At the 66th National Film Awards, the film won two awards for Best Action and Best Special Effects. At the 66th Filmfare Awards South, the film won two awards from five nominations, including the award for Best Film and Best Actor for Yash respectively.

Plot

Journalist Anand Ingalagi’s book titled El Dorado that detailed the events at the Kolar Gold Fields between 1951 and 2018, has been banned by the Government of India. All published copies burnt. However, a television news channel procures a copy and interviews him circling the events he had cited.

Ingalagi narrates that commissioned government officials discovered ore of gold in the southern part of India’s Mysore State (in present-day Kolar district, Karnataka) in 1951. Rocky is also born on the day of the discovery in the Mysore region to a poor and widowed woman. Suryavardhan, a local don who accompanied the officials, kills them. Discerning the increasing demand for gold by the Cold War belligerents, Suryavardhan deceitfully sets up a company, Narachi, in that land, bought for a lease of 99 years under the pretext of mining limestone. He has five associates, all of whom operate away from KGF: Kamal; the son of a former associate Bharghav, Andrews and Rajendra Desai – who oversee operations in the Konkan and Malabar Coast from Bangalore, Guru Pandian; a powerful politician and president of the DYSS party, and his brother Adheera. However, each of them had their eyes on the mines.

Andrews’ underboss Shetty is a gold smuggler in Bombay, the city also had another rival smuggler, Dubai-based Inayat Khalil’s eyes set on.

Rocky arrives in Bombay as a ten-year-old on a quest for power and wealth as desired by his dying mother and begins to work for Shetty. Years later, he becomes Shetty’s right-hand man later and oversees gold bars’ arrival from Africa to the Bombay coast with an iron fist. Rocky soon rises in strength and power, rivaling that of Shetty’s. This attracts the attention of Andrews, who offers him, Bombay in return for assassinating Garuda, the elder son of Suryavardhan, who is to inherit KGF after his now paralyzed father’s passing.

Rocky accepts the offer and heads to Bangalore where a political event is staged for the purpose. Once there, he witnesses the sheer presence, authority, and power that Garuda commands to have the attempt averted.

Previously in 1978, at the KGF, a bedridden Suryavardhan announces Garuda as his successor overlooking Adheera, who he wants to serve as the former’s aide. Garuda’s ruthless way of functioning, aided by his commander Vanaram comes to the fore.

In the present, seeing no other option to murder Garuda, Rocky soon makes his way into KGF, evading a unit of henchmen. Once there, he witnesses the brutality that the slaves are subjected to. Although apathetic at first, he is moved by an incident involving a cold-blooded killing of a mother and son at the hands of an overseer and the hope of slaves’ children that Rocky rises to liberate them. After stealthily accessing the map in the maintenance room during his shift and narrowly escaping the clutches of death by the sacrifice of a fellow slave to save the life of his wife and unborn child, Andrews and Desai were misinformed by their spies of the incident, thus believing Rocky was dead. Beginning his attempt to indicate to Desai and his men through their informants, Kulkarni and Garuda’s brother Virat, that he was still alive, Rocky engages in a fight with a unit of twenty-three overseers, killing each one of them to save a blind slave they were to kill brutally. With the act, Rocky emerges as a hero in the slaves’ eyes. Rocky later orders to burn the twenty-three men’s corpses in a huge blaze, warning Kulkarni and Virat that he was ready to kill Garuda, as discussed with them earlier.

An alerted Vanaram, who notices the fire, now informs Garuda of the missing twenty-three overseers. The suspicious fire sends jeeps of his hitmen along with Garuda toward the mines from Garuda’s residence. To immediately avert the hitmen from arriving in the mines and finding the slaves burning the overseers, Virat smothers father Suryavardhan, suffocating him to death to cause a huge diversion sidetrack Garuda, who rushes back home, giving Rocky and the slaves time to burn the overseers’ bodies.

Realizing the bad turn of events recently, Garuda orders Goddess Durga’s ritual to be preponed the next week to the next day, stating he would kill his father’s allies as soon the ritual would be complete. The next day at the mines, Rocky seizes the opportunity, conspires, and unsuspectingly heads through a tunnel to the site where Garuda has decided to behead three slaves as offerings to the deity. Simultaneously, Vanaram discovers that the third slave to be beheaded is still inside the palace; realization dawns on him that an imposter who plans to kill Garuda has taken his place. Vanaram rushes towards the site of the sacrifice but is too late. Upon Garuda’s return to the site and sacrifice of two slaves, a concealed Rocky emerges and beheads him. The ecstatic slaves accept him as their leader as they cheer him on. The narrator concludes that Rocky intentionally chose KGF to assassinate Garuda, thereby inspiring an army of slaves to seize KGF. However, the narrator indicates that this is just the beginning.

The news of Garuda’s murder passes wide and far across the country, as it is shown that Ramika Sen, the newly elected Prime Minister, order the army to search for Rocky under a death warrant, with a shot of Suryavardhan’s brother Adheera, who had been mentioned to be previously killed by Garuda after an assassination attempt, hearing the news of Garuda’s death, along with of Inayat Khalil in Dubai. As Vanaram orders his men to attack Rocky and his army, a gunshot is fired, and the movie cuts to black, foreshadowing part-2.

Cast

Hindi-dubbed version

• Mouni Roy as Lucy in special appearance for an item number “Gali Gali”

Production

Pre-production

Followed by the success of Mr. and Mrs. Ramachari (2014), Yash signed for four projects as of March 2015, including his one with director Prashanth Neel (of Ugramm fame). The project which was titled as KGF, was considered to be one of the most expensive films in the Sandalwood cinema, whose synopsis is about an ambitious man and his life in the 1970s. Hombale Films, the production house led by Vijay Kiragandur, bankrolled the project, and one of its production executive Karthik Gowda, stated that “KGF which is set in the 70s, took over one and a half years of pre-production, because they wanted to ensure they got every single detail right, be it the matchboxes, telephone or the clothes people wore.” The film’s director Prashanth Neel, stated that the film will be launched in April 2016, whereas the shooting will begin from May 2016. Ravi Basrur, who earlier scored music for the director’s Ugramm, was roped in for the project, while Bhuvan Gowda handled the cinematography for the film.

In an interview with The Times of India, Prashanth Neel stated that he planned to split the film in two parts, as the narration of this story is in non-linear format, and the decision to split the film into two parts, also had to with the commercial prospects. He further added “The scale of the project is huge and we had a scope for a beginning, an interval and an end for both parts, so it made sense for us to release it as two parts”. As for the decision to make it as a multilingual, he says that it was because the film is based on a unique idea and has a universal theme. About the rumours of doing KGF as a “Tamil version with Suriya being roped in, but failing to do so”, he stated that it was meant to be a Kannada film.

In December 2020, during the making of its second instalment K.G.F: Chapter 2, Prasanth Neel denied rumours of a third instalment in the franchise and claimed that the story will conclude in its second part.

Development

The film featured an ensemble cast, most of them completely new faces. The cast members sported rugged looks, given the subject and setting of the film. Yash grew his beard and long hair for his role as Rocky, a slick and a suave person of the 1970s. Bangalore-based model Srinidhi Shetty, a winner of the Miss Supranational 2016, was cast alongside Yash. Srinidhi, a self-confessed fan of Yash claimed that she had watched his films Drama and Mr. and Mrs. Ramachari, and stated that he is one of the actors whom she looks forward to. In August 2017, Vasishta Simha bagged a pivotal role in the film, while Ramya Krishnan and Nassar were falsely reported to be a part of the film.

In July 2016, the makers kickstarted a 15-day long schedule in North Karnataka, without Yash, as the actor was shooting for Santhu Straight Forward (2016). The first schedule of the film took place on a huge set, which took more than 35-40 days for construction. The film was slated to take off earlier this year, but was pushed because of the problems surrounding the Kalasa Banduri issue, owing to which the team had to cancel its initial shoot schedule plans, followed by the actor’s break from shooting films, in order to focus on his wedding with his co-star Radhika Pandit, whom he worked with her in Mr. and Mrs. Ramachari, which was held on Bangalore in December 2016.

Filming

The film’s shooting took place in January 2017, after completing the final stages of pre-production. On 25 January 2017, the makers erected huge sets at Badami, to replicate Kolar in the period of 1970-80, thereby filming extensively in the location. The art director Shivakumar recreated the Kolar Gold Fields film set of the 1980s and VFX was used as an extension for the film. Keeping in mind with a freak accident, happened at the sets of Masti Gudi (2017), claiming the lives of two actors in the sets, producer Kirangadur, secured an inusrance cover for the crew members working in the film. As of 25 June 2017, the project was 50 percent complete and production had restarted after sets were rebuilt following their destruction by heavy rains.

As a part of the film’s shoot, the makers painted a portion of the Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion, which is located on the campus of University of Mysore. Some sequences of the movie, which has Yash and Srinidhi Shetty in the lead roles, was also shot at centenary clock tower located next to the campus. Yash entered the final schedule of the film in April 2018. In May 2018, actors Malavika Avinash and Anant Nag, filmed the interview sequence, one of the major scenes in the film’s storyline. At the end of the month, Yash had announced that he had completed his portions, and started dubbing for the film. As of May 2018, the makers completed major portions of the film, except one song.

In August 2018, Kajal Aggarwal was reported to shoot for a song sequence, thus marking her debut in Kannada. However, on 9 August, Tamannaah was roped in for a song number, thus making her appearance in second film in Kannada after Jaguar (2016). On 17 August 2018, the makers announced that shooting of the film has been wrapped, although another song shoot for the film’s Hindi version, featuring Yash and Mouni Roy, took place at the Goregaon Studio on 7 and 8 December.

Themes and influences

In an interview with director Prashanth Neel, for The Times of India, about the theme of the film, he stated “KGF has a strong texture of gold in it, which is about greed and gold. KGF, in many ways, is akin to El Dorado. The way kings and soldiers have over the years gone looking for the mythical El Dorado, where anyone who lays claim to the place ruled the world. This is what Anant Nag (narrator) says in the film too.” Prashant explains about the setting of the film in 1970-80 stating, “In 1978, because of the Cold War between USA and the erstwhile Soviet Union that had affected places like Iran and Afghanistan, the price of gold went up the highest in the recorded history. Till date, one cannot find another time when the price of gold shot up so much. So, 1978 was the perfect setting for us, because the higher the price of gold, the higher the greed of men.” The film was also inspired by action movies and western movies like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and For a Few Dollars More.

Soundtrack

Ravi Basrur composed the soundtrack album and the film’s score, while Tanishk Bagchi remastered the track “Gali Gali” from Tridev (1989) for the film’s Hindi version, and D. Imman composed the karaoke versions of the songs. The audio rights of the film were purchased by Lahari Music in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam for ₹3.6 crore, a record sum for any South Indian film, except the Hindi version which was bought by T-Series.

The track “Salaam Rocky Bhai” was served as the lead single from the soundtrack album. It was released in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam on 7 December 2018, along with the full soundtrack album; whereas the album for the Hindi version was released on 9 December 2018. The karaoke versions of the songs were released on 27 December 2018.

The film’s score was released in two volumes: The first volume of the original soundtrack was released on 10 September 2019, and the second volume was released on 12 October 2019.

Release

On 28 August 2017, the makers announced that KGF will be made as a multilingual film, which will be released in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam languages, which will the mark the foray of its crew members (including Yash), in different industries. The makers planned to release the film in the second half of 2018. On 19 September 2018, the makers announced that the first part of the film will be releasing on 16 November 2018, but the release was postponed to 21 December.

Distribution

The distribution rights for the Kannada version were bought by KRG Studios, a sister company of the film’s studio Hombale Films. The film’s Hindi version was distributed by Rithesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar and Anil Thadani, bought the rights under their banners Excel Entertainment and AA Films. The rights for the Tamil and Telugu dubbed versions were sold to Vishal Film Factory and Vaaraahi Chalana Chitram. The Malayalam-dubbed rights of the film were sold to Global United Media.

Screenings and statistics

K.G.F: Chapter 1 received a U/A certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification in early December 2018. It was reported that the film would be released in 1,800–2,200 screens worldwide, the widest ever release for a Kannada film. However, it was later reported that the film was released in 2,460 screens, that included 1,500 for the Hindi version, 400 each for Kannada and Telugu, 100 for Tamil and 60 for Malayalam.

The advance booking for the shows were started on 16 December 2018, and saw a tremendous response upon its initial bookings. Following its response, the makers alloted early morning shows at 4:00 a.m. for the preview. The film was released in the U.S. and Canada on 20 December 2018 and in India the following day. The day also saw releases in parts of Africa, Hong Kong, New Zealand and parts of Eastern Europe including Cyprus, the first in these regions for a Kannada film. The film released in Malaysia on 28 December and in United Kingdom on 4 January 2019.

The Hindi-dubbed version of the film was released in 71 screens in Pakistan on 11 January and became the first Kannada film to be released there, although Lucia (2013) was screened at film festivals and had no theatrical release in the country.

Film festivals

KGF was screened at the 11th Bangalore International Film Festival on 28 February 2019, where it received an award for the Best Picture in the Entertainment category, and was adjudged the most popular Kannada film, by the jury members.

Marketing

The first look of the film was released on 3 May 2017. On 8 January 2018, coinciding with Yash’s birthday, a one-minute long introductory teaser, with Ananth Nag giving the narrations, was unveiled by the production team. After responding to a fan’s request, Yash announced that the film’s trailer’s release in October 2018. On 6 November 2018, Farhan Akhtar shared a special poster on the occasion of Diwali, for the film’s Hindi version. The official trailer of the film was released on 9 November 2018. The trailer crossed more than one million views within an hour of its release.

A special promotions were planned on 4 December in Chennai, and 6 December in Hyderabad. On 9 December 2018, the makers hosted a pre-release event at JRC Convention Centre in Hyderabad, to promote the film’s Telugu version. S. S. Rajamouli graced the event as the chief guest. As a part of the film’s promotion, an online game “KGF”, specially designed for android mobile-phones was released by Mobi2Fun Private Limited, for Google Play Store, which saw more than 5,000 downloads upon its initial response. Youtubers Ashish Chanchlani, Ajey Nagar (of CarryMinati fame) and Gautami and Abhyudhaya Mohan (of SlayyPoint), collaborated with Yash for the film’s promotions in Hindi version.

Complications

On 20 December 2018, the 10th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court in Bengaluru had passed an interim stay before the film’s release, following two petitions, filed by Venkatesh G, Yogesh and Ratan, citing plagiarism allegations, and also accusing the filmmakers of portraying the history of Kolar in poor light. However, the producer Kiragandur stated that the film will be released on the said date, and asked fans to avoid rumours. On 27 December 2018, the makers issued a statement that the shows in Australia were cancelled due to unauthorized screening, as the distributors of the film did not consult the producers of the original.

Piracy

On 18 December 2018, a few scenes from the film were leaked onto the social networking sites, although Karthik Gowda, the executive producer labeled it a rumour, and also clarified that the makers have issued a team to fight against online piracy. Despite measures taken, pirated versions of the film were made available before its release. In May 2020, the producers sued a local television channel, for premiering the film’s Telugu version illegally.

Home media

The film’s digital rights were sold to Amazon Prime Video for ₹18 crore, and premiered on 5 February 2019, along with its dubbed versions. Colors Kannada bought the satellite rights for an undisclosed record price, and hosted its premiere on 30 March 2019. The Tamil version of the film was telecast through Colors Tamil on 7 April. Sony Pictures Networks, acquired the satellite rights of the Hindi version.

The film’s Telugu version was premiered on Star Maa, on 5 July 2020, and registered an average TRP rating of 11.9, with many citing the premiere was delayed for more than 18 months, since the date of theatrical release.

Re-release

The film was re-released in the United States in 35 locations on 31 January 2019, becoming the first Kannada film to be re-released in the country. On 1 November 2019, coinciding with the occasion of Kannada Rajyotsava, the makers re-released the film at 25 to 30 centres across Karnataka, with a week run during its release. The film’s Hindi version was re-released in PVR, Inox and Cinepolis theatres, on 23-29 October 2020.

Reception

K.G.F: Chapter 1 received positive response from audiences while critics gave the film mixed reviews. While its cinematography, art direction, narration, stunt sequences, background score and acting performances received acclamation, critics had mixed comments about the screenplay, dialogues and editing.

Reviewing for Deccan Herald, Vivek M. V. felt that the “grandeur” lay in the film’s “fantastically gripping story”. He wrote praises of the film’s narration, its “brilliant” editing and “riveting sequences”. Sunayana Suresh of The Times of India gave the film rating of three-and-a-half out of five and wrote that it had a “fast-paced first half … but the second half and the climax sets up the right premise for the second part of the film.” She called the screenplay narrated in a “non-linear” fashion the “most interesting part of the film”. She commended the performance as Yash in that he “lives his character to the fullest”. Troy Ribeiro of News18 echoed her sentiment and wrote, “Yash’s endurance, strife and sincerity … get projected as perfunctory” in the context of “tight close-ups and mid-shots the camera stops us from getting emotionally connected to” every actor in the film. He further wrote, “With intense atmospheric lighting, every frame in the film looks aesthetic and natural. Brilliant cinematography and equally challenging action sequences are put together with razor-sharp edits. They give the film a racy pace.” The reviewer for Hindustan Times, Priyanka Sundar, called the film a “story of greed and redemption” and remarked that it “burns bright”. While praising the “promising” background score, “sharp” editing and “stunning” visuals, she felt that the screenplay could have been “tighter”.

Janani K. of India Today felt the film was “dragged and over-stretched” and gave it a three out of five-star rating. While she commended Yash’s “extraordinary performance” and the “brilliantly choreographed stunt sequences”, she wrote that despite having “universal theme, gets lost in translation, thanks to sloppy editing and atrocious dialogues.” Subha J. Rao of Firstpost gave the film a similar rating and praised the film’s music, cinematography and art direction; particularly the latter in “bringing alive the grime and heat of the gold mines”. However, she felt “ighter editing … would have smoothened out the kinks” in the film. Shashiprasad S. M. of Deccan Chronicle scored the film a two-and-a-half out of five star rating and described the film as “a visual spectacle”. Barring that, he felt it fell short of “instilling the much-needed life into it.” Karthik Keramalu of Film Companion felt that the film fell short of “becoming a great movie by a long mile”. He dismissed the dialogues delivered by Yash’s character as “lengthy sermon about his own valour”, while also criticizing the film’s editing.

Excepting what he described the film’s climax as “spectacular with the support of a brilliant cast” and “spot on” sets and location, Muralidhara Khajane of The Hindu felt there was “nothing in the film that we have not seen before”. While writing that “here is a certain finesse to the edgy, moody cinematography”, he concluded that the film lacked a “soul, a believable story and a rounded protagonist.” Manoj Kumar R. of The Indian Express scored the film two-and-a-half out of five stars and deemed it “n overstretched exercise in hero worship”. While drawing comparisons of certain scenes to those from Baahubali, he felt the film had a “flimsy storyline”, which he added is made up for by “terrific background orchestra”. Also writing for the same news publication, Shubhra Gupta drew comparisons of the film in plot to those of Nayakan, Deewaar, and Parinda in its first half. She felt that the film had “nothing more” than “striking cinematography, and the brown and sepia colours which suffuse the screen.”

The character of Rocky was well received by critics. Janani K of India Today said that “You take a look at and instantly you know that this guy will do the impossible and pull people out of their misery.” Sunaina Suresh of Times of India said that “The growth of Rocky is shown steadily and the makers kept a clever story telling pattern right through, that keeps pace with the narrative.” And further added that, “The first chapter shows Rocky as the maverick mastermind who will stop at nothing in order to achieve his mission.” Troy Ribeiro of News 18 said that “Rocky is the new Superhero in the town.”

Box office

KGF: Chapter 1 on the first day of its release collected ₹25 crore worldwide  which was the highest opening in the Kannada film industry, In Karnataka’s capital Bengaluru alone, the film earned about ₹5 crore on the first day. The film registered a gross of 59.61 crore, at the worldwide box office on its first three days, becoming the fastest Kannada film to gross ₹50 crore. The film grossed around ₹113 crore worldwide in the first week of its release, becoming the first Kannada film to gross ₹100 crores. On 9 January 2019, trade analysts announced that the film entered the ₹200 crore mark, thus becoming the first Kannada film to do so. It went on to gross around ₹250 crores and completed a theatrical run of over 100 days in a couple of centres in Karnataka.

Domestic

KGF: Chapter 1 on the first day of its release collected ₹18.10 crore net at the domestic box office. The Hindi version raked in more than ₹2 crore at the box office on the first day. On the second day (22 December), the film outdid first day its collections, with a worldwide collection of ₹25 crore. First weekend collections stood around ₹59.6 crore worldwide from all its versions, whereas the Hindi-dubbed version collected over ₹9 crore. On the fourth day, the film collected an approximately ₹80 crore while the Hindi version saw a jump of 45% on Monday. On 25 December 2018, the film saw a steep incline on the box office due to Christmas holidays, collecting more than ₹84 crore upon release. The fifth day collections, stood up to ₹100 crore.

The film collected more than ₹105 crore at the domestic box office in the first week of release. As of 10 days, the film had collected ₹87 crore from Karnataka, ₹1.60 crore from Kerala, ₹6.1 crore from Tamil Nadu and ₹14.50 crore from Telugu speaking states. The film entered the 100 crore mark in Karnataka on the fifteenth day of box office, thus becoming the first film in Karnataka to do so.

It collected over ₹134 crore in Karnataka and became the highest-grossing film in that state, beating the previous record of Baahubali 2: The Conclusion. The film collected ₹24.39 crore in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, ₹3.18 crore in Kerala and ₹8.82 crore in Tamil Nadu, thus the film earned more than ₹171.75 crore across in theatres across South India. Its Hindi version earned more than ₹40.39 crore, thus K.G.F: Chapter 1 became the fourth highest grossing Hindi dubbed film after the Baahubali franchise, and 2.0. The film earned more than ₹204 crore at the domestic box office.

Overseas

K.G.F which was premiered in more than 100 theatres in 50 locations, became the fastest Kannada film to cross $200k and $300k in the United States box office. As of 25 December, the film earned $413,214, thus also becoming the first film to earn $400k at the box office. Within the end of the first week K.G.F collected more than $522,848, at the box office, thus KGF became the first Sandalwood film to cross half million ($500k) dollar in United States.

At the second weekend the film grossed $146,207, to take its total tally to $669,055, and it crossed the $700k mark within the second week. Thereafter, the collection saw a normal dip and has ended its lifetime collection at $805,637 in the country.

Apart from USA, the film colected £22,656 in United Kingdom, $9,539 in New Zealand and RM 11,406 in Malaysia, to collect a cumulative $1.5 million in overseas.

Accolades

Year	Ceremony	Category	Recipient(s)	Result	Ref.
2018	Karnataka State Film Awards	Best Music Director	Ravi Basrur	Won
		Best Art Director	Shiva Kumar K	Won
2019	Zee Kannada Hemmeya Kanndiga Awards	Best Film	K.G.F	Won
		Best Director	Prashanth Neel	Won
		Best Actor	Yash	Won
		Best Cinematographer	Bhuvan Gowda	Won
		Best Music Director	Ravi Basrur	Won
		Best Villain	Ramachandra Raju	Won
		Best Lyrisist	Nagendra Prasad	Won
		Voice Of The Year	Vijay Prakash	Won
	66th National Film Awards	Best Special Effects	Unifi Media	Won
		Best Stunt Choreography	Vikram More, Anbariv	Won
	8th SIIMA Awards	Best Film	K.G.F	Won
		Best Actor	Yash	Won
		Pantaloons style icon male of the year	Yash	Won
		Best Director	Prashanth Neel	Won
		Best Actor in a Negative Role	Ramachandra Raju	Nominated
		Best Debut Actress	Srinidhi Shetty	Nominated
		Best Supporting Actress	Archana Jois	Won
		Best Cinematographer	Bhuvan Gowda	Won
		Best Music	Ravi Basrur	Won
		Best Supporting actor – Male	Achyuth Kumar	Won
		Best Playback Singer – Male	Vijay Prakash	Won
	66th Filmfare Awards South	Best Film – Kannada	K.G.F: Chapter 1	Won
		Best Director – Kannada	Prashanth Neel	Nominated
		Best Actor – Kannada	Yash	Won
		Best Music Director – Kannada	Ravi Basrur	Nominated
		Best Female Debut	Srinidhi Shetty	Nominated

Sequel

Before the release of its predecessor in December 2018, the makers shot 20% of its second part, and the crew went on double shifts till January 2019. The film has Yash and Srinidhi Shetty reprising their roles from the first part, while Sanjay Dutt and Raveena Tandon were cast in pivotal roles. The shooting of the film kick started on 13 March 2019.

K.G.F: Chapter 2, was originally scheduled to hit theatres on 23 October 2020. But the release was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India. On January 2021, the makers announced a new release date of 16 July 2021, in Kannada and also in dubbed versions of Telugu, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam languages.

Impact

The success of ‘KGF’ means a lot to the Kannada industry, especially to a lot of our talented technicians who don’t get the due they deserve. A lot of our talented technicians have been looking for a platform and ‘KGF’ has provided them that pedestal. This success has boosted the morale of Kannada industry. It has justified the talent of Prashanth Neel.

— Yash in an interview about IANS, post the success of KGF.

The film was praised by many celebrities across the South Indian film industry. Director Pa. Ranjith praised the team after watching the trailer of the film, while Puneeth Rajkumar and Shah Rukh Khan also appreciated Yash and its makers. Raveena Tandon,  Rashmika Mandanna, Ram Gopal Varma and Sumalatha Ambareesh (wife of late actor Ambareesh) also praised Yash’s performance. Tamil actor Vijay who watched the special screening of the film on 20 January 2019 in Chennai, praised the team for its brilliant filmmaking, and also actor Yash for his performance.

Following the box office performance of the film, on 3 January 2019, the Income Tax Department raided homes of several film stars and producers from the Kannada industry, including the film’s actors Yash and its producer, Vijay Kiragandur, and its actors have also been asked to provide details of his remuneration for the film, throwing light on the fact that the movie’s performance was considered to be the reason behind the IT raid.

In a March 2018 interview with IANS, Yash stated that “The success of K.G.F: Chapter 1, boosted morale of Kannada film industry. This success means a lot to all the untapped talent of our industry”. K.G.F also established Kannada cinema, to make multilingual films, with the 2019 releases Pailwaan, Kurukshetra and Avane Srimannarayana were released in multiple languages. Shjilpa Sebastian wrote an article for The Hindu titled, 2019: The year when Kannada cinema went national, in which she stated that the film “changed the game plan for the Kannada film industry”.

KGF became the most streamed film on Amazon Prime Video on 2019. Director Nagathihalli Chandrashekhar, chairman of the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy, praised the film stating “We can expect more KGFs in the future. Not everyone can make a KGF, but its success can inspire more quality filmmaking using both local and international technicians.”