A pioneer of parallel cinema, T.S. Nagabharana is a National Award winning Indian director and screenwriter who has won several national and international acclaim for 20 his 34 Kannada films that he has directed over four decades. The director started his career in 1978 with Grahana and since then has directed films like Banker Margayya (1983), Aasphota (1987), Santha Shishunala Sharifa (1989), Mysore Mallige (1991), Chigurida Kanasu (2003), Nam Yajamanru (2009), Vasundhara (2014), Jai Lalitha (2014) and Kalidasa Kannada Meshtru (2019).