Sudha Belawadi

Mungaru Male (Pre-Monsoon rain) is a 2006 Indian Kannada-language musical romance film co-written and directed by Yogaraj Bhat, and produced by E. Krishnappa. It stars Ganesh, Pooja Gandhi and Anant Nag in lead roles. The film is believed to have shaped and strengthened the careers of Ganesh, Pooja Gandhi, director Yograj Bhat, lyricist Jayant Kaikini, choreographers A. Harsha, Imran Sardaria, composer Mano Murthy and others in Kannada cinema, and made Bollywood playback singers Sonu Nigam, Kunal Ganjawala, Udit Narayan, Sunidhi Chauhan and Shreya Ghoshal popular in the state. It was the first film in India (for any language) to be screened continuously for over one year in a multiplex, and holds the record for the longest-running film at a multiplex in addition to having the highest recorded box-office collections for Kannada cinema. It ran over 865 days in Karnataka and collected an estimated 50–75 crore (500–750 million). It was remade in 2008 in Telugu as Vaana, in 2008 in Bengali as Premer Kahini  and in 2017 in Marathi as Premay Namaha. A sequel to the film titled Mungaru Male 2 was released in 2016.