Police Story (1996 film)

Police Story is a 1996 Kannada action film, directed by Thriller Manju, starring Sai Kumar as a super cop. The film was simultaneously dubbed into Telugu, Tamil under the same name and in Hindi as Agni IPS, emerged as a blockbuster, and remained a cult classic which lead to two sequels.

Agni (Saikumar) is an sincere, short-tempered police officer who could not tolerate injustice and uses brute force to punish criminals. His unconventional methods has been criticised by ministers. In a fit of rage, Agni resigns from the posting however he rejoins after being coaxed by his elder brother (Avinash). A new CBI officer (Raymond De Souza) from Mumbai has been appointed to handle a case of a gangster named Black Tiger. Senior official explains that there used to be a dreaded criminal Shobraj (Shobraj) who killed all the police officials after his wife was molested and killed by his enemy, In the process, Shobraj dies in an explosion.

Two gangsters Sathya (Sathyaprakash) and Dharma (Sharath Lohitashwa) terrorises Bangalore with their unlawful activities. Dharma, being a gangster in college murders a girl by throwing her off the building after she rejects his love. The student who was in love with that girl turns insane and becomes a witness however he is killed by Sathya. With this, Agni clashes with Sathya and Dharma. CBI officer from Mumbai gets killed by an corrupt minister who is a right hand of Sathya. Agni's brother dies while trashing Black Tiger's henchman Black Cobra in a fit of rage. It turns out that Shobraj is not dead, he is alive under the pseudonym "Black Tiger". Corrupt inspector kills another inspector to destroy evidence behind CBI officer's death is killed after getting hit by a truck.

In order to provide justice, Agni brings an mute youngster as a witness to this case however Sathya shoots him in the court promises, Agni shoots Sathya and points his gun towards Dharma who out of fear accepts his wrongdoings. It turned out that before the court case, judge who was handling this case killed the mute youngster in the hospital and the photos were captured by a journalist. Towards the ending, Agni arrests Black Tiger and his efforts has been appreciated by Chief Minister.

Saikumar who gained recognition as a star with Lockup Death (1994) acted in this film under the direction of Thriller Manju, a stunt choreographer who made his directorial debut with this film. Kannada and its dubbed Telugu version was successful and gained breakthrough for Saikumar and it led him typecasted in similar roles.

A sequel titled Police Story 2 saw Saikumar reprising his role which was released in 2007. The third unrelated film was released in 2011.