Veteran director-cinematographer Tom Cowan, who worked on 1970 Kannada classic Samskara, says though the caste practice was foreign to him, he could connect with the characters in the film. The Pattabhirama Reddy Tikkavarapu-directed film was based on celebrated writer UA Ananthamurthy's novel of the same name and featured Girish Karnad, P Lankesh and Dasharathi Dixit in lead roles.

Samskara was a path-breaking movie, which is said to have kick-started the parallel cinema movement in Kannada film industry.