House of Fragrance) is a 1971 Indian Kannada-language drama film written and directed by the director duo Dorai–Bhagavan based on a story by G. Balasubramanium which was loosely inspired by William Shakespeare's play Timon of Athens.
[3] After Balasubramaniam wrote the story exclusively for Sivaji Ganesan, director K. Shankar and producer Noor were impressed.
[7] In 2014, Kasturi Nivasa became the second Kannada film to be digitally remastered and colourised, at an estimated cost of ₹2 crore.
[9][10] Ravi Varma, owner of a matchbox factory is a widower and has lost his daughter in an accident.
Ravi has planned to propose to his secretary Neela, but when she seeks his permission to marry Chandru, he blesses her.
Facing financial losses because of excessive charity, Ravi puts up his house for sale.
[12] Filming done in Mysore and Kanteerava Studios in Bangalore, was completed in 19 and a half days, having spent ₹3.75 lakh.
He felt the film must be shot in Eastmancolor, and said he was ready to incur an additional expenditure of ₹5.5 lakh.
Finally, Rajkumar on insisting Gowda that money not be wasted, the filming resumed in black-and-white.
[13] On the final day of the re-recording, while scoring the background music for the climax, L. Vaidyanathan, assistant to Venkatesh, felt free verse would enhance the mood and add additional depth to the situation.
Immediately, Udayashankar was called and made to listen to the tune on violin, he then wrote the lyrics for song "Aadisidaata" which Venkatesh himself sang.
[1] The song "Nee Bandu Nintaaga" was loosely inspired by "Yeh Dil Diwana Hai" from the 1970 Hindi film Ishq Par Zor Nahin.
Hita Prakash of Deccan Herald praised the film for portraying the nuances of leading a righteous yet lonely life.
Bits of the negatives were then procured from other sources and spliced together to restore the original quality of the film (in black-and-white).
[17] The colourisation work was carried out by 60 personnel for a period of 20 months, who coloured each of the 215,000 frames of the original film.
The black-and-white film was first saved in digital format before removing the scratches, dots and rainy lines from it.
Based on the grey scales, colours were then added using a digital enhancement technique for the first time for an Indian film.
[19][20] It opened to packed audiences in the initial weeks of its release, performing well in both single screens and multiplexes.
"[21] Following a good response at the domestic box-office reports, in late November 2014 the film was screened in six cities in the United States.
The character became an inspiration for the protagonist, Siddhartha of the 2017 film Raajakumara which starred Rajkumar's son Puneeth.
Some roles like that of Rajeeva's character in Bangarada Manushya and the one in Kasturi Nivasa, have attained greatness due to this.