Ugramm

Ugramm is a 2014 Indian Kannada-language action thriller film directed by Prashanth Neel in his directorial debut, and produced by his brother Pradeep Neel. It stars Sriimurali and Hariprriya in the lead roles, with Tilak Shekar, Avinash, Atul Kulkarni, and Jai Jagadish in supporting roles. The music was composed by Ravi Basrur. Bhuvan Gowda serves as the main cinematographer with Ravi Varman as a guest cinematographer, marking his debut in Kannada cinema.

Ugramm completed a run of 125 days in some theatres in Karnataka. A sequel titled Ugramm Veeram was announced by Sriimurali in July 2014, but it was shelved off. It was remade in Odia as Agastya. The film's storyline was adapted as Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire, with Neel as the director & Basrur as the music director.

Plot
1994: Shivarudra Lingaiah, a ruthless gangster running a crime syndicate in Bangalore, agrees to take up a big smuggling deal and approaches Prabhakar, the owner of a shipping company, to smuggle the goods through his ships, but Prabhakar rejects the offer. Enraged by the rejection, Shivarudra Lingaiah kills Prabhakar's wife and also threatens to kill his infant daughter Nithya. As a result, Prabhakar accepts Shivarudra Lingaiah's offer.

While working with Shivarudra Lingaiah, Prabhakar stops a ship coming from Dubai, which contains smuggled goods belonging to Shivarudra Lingaiah. Prabhakar loads 90% of the smuggled goods into another ship and sells it to a third party. Afterwards, Prabhakar escapes to Australia, along with Nithya, to start a new life. Shivarudra Lingaiah gets arrested based on a tip-off by Prabhakar. However, Shivarudra Lingaiah continues his activities from the prison through his son Dheeraj.

2014: Shivarudra Lingaiah is now an MLA candidate, who along with Dheeraj, is awaiting to exact vengeance from Prabhakar. A grown-up Nithya arrives in Bangalore to visit her late mother's grave in Talagavara. Nithya is kidnapped by Dheeraj's gang on the way, but she is rescued by Agastya, an automobile mechanic. Agastya takes her to his house for safeguarding as advised by Prabhakar's family-friend Vishwa.

Meanwhile, a cat-and-mouse game ensues between Shivarudra Lingaiah and Agastya, where Agastya manages to save Nithya again. Nithya, who has fallen for Agastya, learns from Vishwa about his dark past in Mughor, a region ruled by a blood-drenched syndicate. Agastya's old promise to his friend Bala had pushed Agastya to enter the crime syndicate. Within just a few years, Agastya managed to capture the entire region for Bala, against all odds. This earned him fearful respect and notoriety. However, Agastya's skirmish with Bala's younger brother Maara led to Maara's death. Agastya had forced an exile upon himself, respecting his mother's vow to live a life free of violence.

Dheeraj kills Shivarudra Lingaiah, deeming him weak, and captures Nithya and relocates to Mughor, under orders from Mughor's crime syndicate to seek vengeance on Agastya. Agastya returns to Mughor, where he faces the entire Mughor criminal fraternity. Agastya kills Dheeraj and saves Nithya again. Though still holding a deep grudge against Agastya for Maara's death, Bala allows them to leave as a show of friendship towards Agastya. Agastya leaves Mughor and starts a new life with Nithya.

Cast

 * Srimurali as Agastya
 * Haripriya as Nithya, Prabhakar's daughter
 * Tilak Shekar as Bala, Agastya's best friend
 * Avinash as Shivarudra Lingaiah
 * Atul Kulkarni as Dheeraj, Shivarudra Lingaiah's son
 * Jai Jagadish as Prabhakar
 * Padmaja Rao as Agastya's mother
 * Giri as Malla
 * Mithra as Seena

Filming
Ugramm was the first film ever to be shot outside the Bharat Gold Mines Limited cyanide dumps at Kolar Gold Fields. The other locations where the film was shot at include Kalaburagi, which was showcased as Mughor in the film, Bijapur District, Chintamani, Kolar, Mysore, Gargeshwari, Nandigrama, and Bangalore. Eight different cameras were used to suit different situations and locations.

Soundtrack
The songs and background score were composed by Ravi Basrur with lyrics written by Ram Narayan, S. Sarvesh and Basrur. The soundtrack has six songs.

Reviewing the soundtrack album, Kavya Christopher of The Times of India wrote, "Apart from the title track – Ugramm Veeram – which rightfully captures the essence of the title, translating to aggression, the rest of the numbers take you into a romantic journey of dream sequences that many stories try to rely on to bring in some breathing space in an otherwise adrenaline-packed plot."

Release
The film made its theatrical release on 21 February 2014 in 142 theaters across Karnataka. It was dubbed in Hindi as ''Main Hoon Fighter Badshah.

Box office
Ugramm opened collected ₹5.5 crore in Karnataka on the first week. It completed a 125-day run in theatres in Karnataka.

Critical response
B. S. Srivani of Deccan Herald wrote "An overdose of violence to simple-minded families, Ugramm, however, is a treat for those looking for instant kicks." A. Sharadhaa of The New Indian Express wrote, "This is a landmark gangster film that balances commercial elements with a stirring screenplay. A very well-made film, Ugramm is full of action, drama and fleshed out characters." Shyam Prasad S. of Bangalore Mirror gave 3/5 stars and wrote "The film is technically brilliant, but what it lacks is a style to the excessive energy that is drummed up." The Times of India gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Set in the North Karnataka region of Mughor, Ugramm keeps viewers hooked from the beginning with its lively script and brilliant narration. Though the loud background music drowns the dialogues at times, the action-packed sequences make up for all shortcomings."

Sequel and remakes
A sequel to the film titled Ugramm Veeram to be made in 2015, was announced by Srimurali in July 2014, but there have been no official updates till date. It was remade in Odia as Agastya starring Anubhav Mohanty. A Marathi remake titled Raanti starring Sharad Kelkar and Shanvi Srivastava was announced in August 2022.

The 2023 film Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire directed by Neel was a retelling of the story, which he did not perceive as a remake. He made significant changes to the story to suit Prabhas and Prithviraj Sukumaran, who were re-enacting Sriimurali and Tilak Shekar's roles. Neel expressed that Ugramm always held a special place in his heart and wanted to do justice to its story. Following the pan-Indian success of KGF: Chapter 2, Neel saw the new markets opened by KGF as an opportunity to not let his "best stories languish on YouTube". He wanted "Ugramm to reach the heights of KGF" and emphasized that "scaling up Ugramm to create Salaar was solely about enhancing the storytelling."