Nagarahavu (2002 film)

Nagarahavu (Kannada: ನಾಗರಹಾವು) is a 2002 Indian Kannada psychological Thriller film starring Upendra and Jyothika. The film was directed by S. Murali Mohan and is a remake of the 1993 Bollywood film Baazigar. Upendra and Jyothika won several awards for this movie including South Filmfare Awards. The film shocked its Karnataka audience with an unexpected violation of the standard Kannada film industry formula, with an ambiguous hero. An Above Average Success at the box office, this was Upendra's second film where he played a negative role after his earlier blockbuster film Preethse. For his work in the film, Upendra won the Udaya Film Award for Best Male Actor for the second time.

Based on Ira Levin's 1953 novel A Kiss Before Dying, it is a contemporary thriller about revenge. The main character is Ajay Sharma (Upendra). His father, Vishwanath Sharma (Shrinath), once owner of a great business empire, was defrauded by Madan Chopra (Dalip Tahil), a trusted employee in Vishwanath's company. The Sharma family is ousted from their own company and loses everything they owned. Soon afterwards, Ajay's father and his young baby sister die due to illness, unable to buy medicine because of their destitute state. His mother is now suffering from mental illness and memory loss. Driven over the edge, Ajay becomes obsessed with killing Chopra and destroying his family.

Ajay begins dating Seema Chopra (Jyothika), the daughter of the owner of Chopra business empire. They meet secretly as her father would not approve of a poor son-in-law. Meanwhile, the younger daughter Priya Chopra (Jyothika, dual role) travels with her father Madan Chopra to Madras (now Chennai), for Madan's final kart race before he retires permanently. Madan has never lost before, but comes across Vicky Malhotra (Ajay Sharma in a disguise of brown contact lenses). Vicky allows Madan to win by slowing at the last corner and tells him that he couldn't beat his "guru". Vicky then charms Priya by saying that he lost the race as he couldn't break the heart of a beautiful girl. Thus his ploy of winning in spite of losing (meaning Baazigar) succeeds as he wins Priya's heart. This way, he manages to date both Seema and Priya simultaneously using different identities.