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. The success of the project made him direct its Hindi version titled as Be-Shaque in 1981, starring Mithun Chakraborty. After a brief hiatus, in 1984, he took up acting career by casting himself in the lead role for the film Anubhava. The film was widely acclaimed and was considered bold during its time of release. The film had its music composed by L. Vaidyanathan with whom he shared a long-lasting rapport and also introduced lyricist-music director V. Manohar through the song "Hodeya Doora O Jothegara". The huge success of the film got him the offer to direct its Hindi remake titled as Anubhav (1986) starring Shekhar Suman and Padmini Kolhapure. In Malayalam, he directed the same film, titled as Aadhyate Anubhavam (1987). The film found multiple time releases and reached the classic status. Following this, he took up acting assignments offered by other directors and starred in some successful films such as Mithileya Seetheyaru (1988), Avale Nanna Hendthi (1988), Sura Sundaranga (1989), Manmatha Raja (1989) and Avane Nanna Ganda (1989). His third directorial film Anamika (1987) could not repeat the success of his previous film. However, his next directed film Anantana Avantara (1989) was met with high popularity and success. His socially entertaining romantic films such as Avale Nanna Hendthi (1988) opposite Bhavya, Avane Nanna Ganda (1989) co-starring Sudharani and Chapala Chennigaraya (1990) opposite Kalpana were both commercial and critical success. This back to back success made Kashinath one of the most sought-after actors in the 1980s era. Later career: 1993–2017 In 1991, he co-produced, directed and acted in the film Ajagajantara. The film costarred Anjana and Srilekha and had music composed by Hamsalekha with the lyrics written by two of his proteges, Upendra and V. Manohar. The comedy-drama film met with commercial success and the