Mukunda Murari is a 2016 Indian Kannada-languagedevotionalsatiricalcomedy drama film directed by Nanda Kishore. The film features Upendra in an atheist role and Sudeep playing the role of Lord Krishna, teaming up for the first time in the lead roles. The film, a remake of Hindi film OMG - Oh My God!, which in turn was based on a Gujarati stage play Kanji Virrudh Kanji, is produced by M.N. Kumar along with B. Jayashree Devi. The rest of the cast includes Nikita Thukral, Ishita Vyas, Kaavya Shah, P. Ravishankar, Avinash among others. The film has cinematography by Sudhakar S. Raj. The soundtrack and film score are composed by Arjun Janya. The film released in over 250 screens on 28 October 2016 and ran for 50 days in theatres.
Plot
The film follows the story of an atheist, Mukunda, who sues God after losing his shop in an earthquake. Religious organizations revolt against him and Murari visits him as his human guide. Atheist shopowner Mukunda talks about selling bulk statues of Hindu gods, and later tricks a devotee from Andhra Pradesh into buying a statue by claiming it is famous. The lack of respect, as his family sees it, makes his wife sad and she makes their son write the name of Rama for at least 10 pages.
In January 2016, it was reported that director Nanda Kishore was under the preparation to remake the hit Bollywood filmOMG - Oh My God! retaining the basic plot and giving it a native touch. Initially, the film was titled 'Kiccha!! Nee Begane Baaro', 'Brahma Vishnu', 'Sri Krishanrjuna Vijaya', 'Super Star Mattu Bigg Boss' and the makers roped in two of the biggest stars Upendra and Sudeep to reprise the roles played by Paresh Rawal and Akshay Kumar respectively in the original version. Later the title was altered as the makers sound the earlier one was quite a common name. To bring the uniqueness to the title, it was renamed to Mukunda Murari.
Casting
After having roped in Upendra and Sudeep to play the protagonist roles, the makers were on the search for the female lead and approached actress Prema hoping to bring her back to the screen after a long hiatus. Later Priyanka Upendra's name was also considered for this role. However, actress Nikita Thukral was finalized to play the wife role to Upendra. Further, actresses names such as Ramya Krishnan, Sadha and Nidhi Subbaiah were reported to play key supporting roles. Since none of these actresses were available, Ishita Vyas and Kaavya Shah were roped in to play those roles. The director went on to cast P. Ravi Shankar and Avinash to play other key roles.
Release
The film released in over 250 screens on 28 October 2016.
Box office
The film was released on the occasion of Deepavali. By the end of its first week, Mukundra Murari grossed a little less than Rs 40 crore. The film ran for 50 days in theaters.
has scored the soundtrack and score for the film. A total of four songs and one instrumental track were composed by him. The audio was officially released on 16 October 2016 through D Beats Music label.
