He worked with noted theatre personalities early in his career; Gubbi Veeranna, Mohammed Peer and B. R. Panthulu before entering films.

The films were major critical and commercial successes and are seen as milestones in Kannada cinema and in the career of Rajkumar.

He then worked for the Bangalore-based Bharat Nataka Company as a playwright and a scenarist, following which, he had a stint at Bombay Talkies.

[1] Krishnamurthy entered the Kannada cinema primarily as a dialogue writer for films such as Hemareddy Mallamma (1945) and Krishnaleele (1947).

Writing lyrics for the soundtracks of films such as Kanyadana, (1954), Devakannika (1954) and Sodari (1955), he made his debut as a director in the 1958 mythological film Shree Krishna Gaarudi, that features Rajkumar in the lead role, an actor who would go on to dominate Kannada cinema as an actor for over two decades.