to realize his dream of making a film written in kannada, he approached shah chamanlal doongaji, a bangalore businessman, to finance it. with doongaji choosing yaragudipati varada rao to direct the film, the first talking film in kannada, "sati sulochana," was made and finally released on 3 march 1934. rao played the role of ravana in the film, and scored the music. his first film as a director came in the 1943 film "satya harishchandra", which he also produced and starred in.