during his graduation in bangalore, kashinath made a short film titled "slip", "in the year 1971 or 1972". this encouraged him to enroll himself into a filmmaking troupe called "aseema" along with contemporary filmmaker-actor and his long acquaintance, suresh heblikar. in 1976, he borrowed money from his father and co-produced with p.r. ramadas for his directorial debut "aparoopada athitigalu", a comedy-drama. his second directorial film "aparichita" in 1978 was a suspense thriller starring suresh heblikar, m. v. vasudeva rao, sundar krishna urs and shoba brought him wide appreciation and recognition. the film paved the way for many other thriller films and was considered to be the "trendsetter" in kannada cinema.