Usually, production houses take several years to reach the top through continual hits, and only then do they make films with hundreds of crores of budget. For example, Vyjyjanthi Movies was established 50 years ago and after these many years of experience, they are making a mega-budget film(hundreds of crores) like Kalki 2898 with Prabhas and Nag Ashwin. But Hombale films have fast-forwarded the process and are making films on mega budgets so early in their career.
There is a strong emotional story behind Hombale Films’ success story and it has something to do with late Kannada superstar Puneeth Rajkumar. Producer Vijay Kirangadur came from a small village in Mandya and rose from rags to riches. When he wanted to announce his production house, his good friend Puneeth Rajkumar suggested “Hombale” name, which is named after the villa deity(grama devatha) Hombalamma.
Upon Puneeth’s suggestion, Vijay launched “Hombale Films” and they worked together for “Ninnandale” which became a blockbuster. This was followed by Master Piece with Yash and Rajakumara with Puneeth again which were blockbusters as well. Prashanth Neel came along then and KGF happened. With this, Hombale took Kannada cinema to the 1000 crore mark as KGF 2 achieved the feat. Their Kanthara was a pan-India mega blockbuster as well.
And when Vijay planned to return the favor to Puneeth for all he did to Hombale and even announced a pan-India film with him, Puneeth sadly passed away. Vijay was gutted by this and even now, he mourns the passing of his good friend. It is heard that he still tells his friends he would’ve given a blockbuster to Puneeth had he been around.
He values Puneeth highly and rightly so and that is why all theatrical screenings of Hombale’s production start with an homage card to Puneeth Rajkumar., Next in line for Hombale Films is Salaar: Part 2, Kanthara 2, amongst others.