JOIN USIt’s hard to slot Kannada director K M Chaitanya into a particular genre. He has managed to cut across barriers and explore as many subjects as possible.
His ability to spot the unusual and bring versatility into all his projects is what sets him apart from the rest of his clan. Chaitanya has completed the shooting of his Indo-British film, ‘Aake’ and has begun work on a yet-to-be titled film.
In an interview with Nina C George, Chaitanya talks about the making of ‘Aake’ and his future projects.
What makes ‘Aake’ different?
Much of ‘Aake’ has been shot in the UK with a British crew. Carl Austin has co-written the screenplay with me, while Ian Howes is the director of photography and Paul Burns is the production designer. The Indian portion in the film has been shot entirely in India. I enjoyed the liberty of being able to change the content and character of ‘Aake’ to suit the local tastes.
How was it to work with a British crew?
Interestingly, everybody from the director to the makeup man is given a copy of the script. Everybody is well-versed with the story and are thorough with the sequence of scenes. This makes scheduling and planning more efficient and the execution more effective.
Who are the lead actors of the film?
Sharmiela Mandre and Chiranjeevi Sarja play the lead roles. They essay performance-driven characters that are intense in nature. While Sharmiela appears as natural and real as possible, Chiru is expected to underplay his emotions.
On mixing art with mainstream cinema?
I agreed to work on ‘Aake’ because I was given the creative freedom to give an artistic bend to an otherwise serious subject. I‘ve used art to compose the story and narrate it in a different way.
What is your criteria for choosing a subject?
The subject must be relevant to the present times. I like to pick real life instances and work on fictionalising them. In my earlier projects, if ‘Parari’ was a laugh riot, where I experimented with the idea of making the viewers laugh without having to say anything, ‘Aatagara’ mirrored the problems of society. I want to explore different styles and techniques of narrating my stories.
What is the biggest challenge of working in horror films?
The biggest challenge is to be able to hold the attention of the audience till the end and keep them on the edge of their seats.