Bhajarangi (2013)

The hero is an easygoing, fun-loving young man who wanders into a remote village and finds its people under the grip of a powerful black-magic practitioner. Strange signs keep pointing back at him, and a long flashback reveals the story of Bhajarangi, a fierce, devout warrior who once stood between the villagers and the sorcerer's evil, at a terrible cost. Now the past demands that the battle be finished. The film mixes mythological fantasy, village drama and big set-piece action, with visual effects that were ambitious for Kannada cinema at the time. Shiva Rajkumar underwent a striking physical transformation for the warrior role, and the film was one of the biggest Kannada hits of 2013 and confirmed choreographer-turned-director A. Harsha as a hit-maker. A sequel, Bhajarangi 2, followed in 2021.