famed comedian Jaggesh. The movie went on to be a success and has since achieved a cult following. Upendra directed a horror suspense thriller next called Shhh! in 1993. The film featured Kashinath and a young producer and actor named Kumar Govind. The film was a major box office success, and Upendra came out as an independent director. His next film was a gangster film called Om, which was released in 1995. The film starred Shivrajkumar and cast real gangsters in its cast. Om became a blockbuster and went on to be one of the highest-grossing Kannada films of its time and made news at a national level. Upendra became an overnight star director. With Om, Upendra again reunited actress Prema with Shivanna earlier they had acted in a film called Savyasachi. Om was also remade into several languages – the Hindi version was called Arjun Pandit and had Sunny Deol playing Shivrajkumar's role. Upendra turned towards a project to direct an extended version of the 1981 film Antha and called it Operation Antha. The film had Ambareesh reprise his role from Antha as Kanwar Lal. The film was not very successful; it was also controversial for its taunts on some real-life political figures. In 1998, Upendra directed A, through which he made a successful transition to acting. There were rumors that it was Upendra's own story, and the actress in the film portrayed his protege Prema. This added to the film's popularity and it broke many box office records upon release and went on to become one of the highest grossing Kannada films of its time. The film had a 175-day run in Karnataka was also dubbed to Telugu, and repeated its success in Andhra Pradesh too, where it had a 100-day run. The film won accolades from Bollywood personalities like Amitabh Bachchan and Anil Kapoor. Upendra was now a big name in Kannada cinema and was also popular in Andhra Pradesh. Upendra's next movie was Swasthik with lead Raghavendra Rajkumar, which was released in 1998. The film performed averagely at the box office but critically well received. In 1999, Upendra made a self-titled film, Upendra. Upendra acted in this film as the unnamed protagonist (or antagonist) Naanu (I or Myself). The film starred three heroines: Damini, Prema, and Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon. Naanu was an arrogant character and was very demeaning towards women, bordering on misogyny; which led