'We are very passionate about cinema'

RangiTaranga’ rewrote the destiny of actor Nirup and his brother  director Anup Bhandari. The film not only got the audience and the who’s who of the film fraternity to sit up and take notice of their talent but also won them prestigious awards. The brothers are now set to return with their second venture ‘Rajaratha’ which promises to be more entertaining and better than their previous work. In an interview with Nina C George, Anup talks about how the project is shaping up.

Tell us about your latest project ‘Rajaratha’.
‘Rajaratha’ is a romantic comedy. This is a subject that I had thought of much before ‘RangiTaranga’. But as it required a higher budget, I focussed on a story that was supposed to happen in one house. However, it became bigger than what it was supposed to be and ended up becoming ‘RangiTaranga’. Now that ‘RangiTaranga’ is a big success, I decided to take up ‘Rajaratha’ as a followup film.

Can you elaborate on the title?
The reason why we chose ‘Rajaratha’ will be revealed in a few days. Interestingly, we had a different title in mind. But another movie with the same name released recently and we had to choose a different title. ‘Rajaratha’ was more apt for the film. Personally, I feel it works for all kinds of audience. It is powerful and has a classy feel to it, which we have also tried to bring out in the title design.

Your combination seems to work like magic...
I guess it’s the amount of effort we put into our work and the attention to detail. We are very particular about the script and hence, spent almost a year after ‘RangiTaranga’ to start our next project. We don’t take our audience for granted. We want to make sure they get their money’s worth.

Who is the heroine for the film?
Avantika Shetty, who did such a fabulous job in ‘RangiTaranga’, was my first and only choice for this film. I believe in creating strong characters for women in my movies. If you look at it, ‘RangiTaranga’ was actually told from the perspective of two female characters. Even in ‘Rajaratha’, Avantika has a very powerful role. It has different shades and I can’t think of many who can pull it off as elegantly as her.

Offbeat subjects in Kannada doing well...
I firmly believe in entertaining the audience but I choose subjects that are unconventional. That way, I connect with hardcore film buffs and those who look for a little more in cinema will not be disappointed.  

Will we see you both work on some real subjects?  
I would definitely love to. I blend real characters and situations in my film, so to base it on a real person or subject would just be an extension of that.

What inspires both of you to work together?
We are very passionate about cinema and if we are not working on a film,  we are watching one. Cinema is the only topic of conversation at home. So we don’t really look at it as work.

Any kind of pressure after the success of ‘RangiTaranga’?
The success of ‘RangiTaranga’ is behind us now. The only difference is that we will have the opening day audience this time because of ‘RangiTaranga’s’ success. But after the morning show, it depends on the movie. So we are approaching it with the same effort as in our previous film.

The best way to avoid repetition of subjects in movies...
It is imperative that we don’t repeat ourselves. ‘Rajaratha’ has nothing in common with ‘RangiTaranga’, be it the genre, the visual style or the treatment of the story. A lot of people felt we should be making a suspense thriller since it worked so well the first time but one of the reasons ‘RangiTaranga’  did well is due to its uniqueness. Even historically, whenever someone dared to do something different and entertaining, it has worked.

What’s next?
Nirup will be working on another movie with a prestigious production house soon after he completes the shoot for ‘Rajaratha’. I am working on a couple of ideas, one of which is a mega budget multi-starrer.