The epic launch

Touted to be the next ‘Baahubali’, Kannada film ‘Kurukshetra’ was launched in the city recently. The mega-budget film has the who’s who of the Kannada film industry playing prominent roles. It is also said to be the first full-fledged 3D film in Kannada.

The actors who have been roped in to play specific characters from the Mahabharata are Darshan, Ravichandran, Ambarish, Arjun Sarja, Ravishankar, Shashikumar, Saikumar, Srinath, Danish Akhtar Saifi, Lakshmi, Sneha, Nikhil Kumar and Hariprriya among others.

Actor Hariprriya, who is paired with Darshan, says that she is excited to be given a role that any actor would love to do. “I am not allowed to give away too many details about my role. But we will soon start shooting for the film and I look at this opportunity as a learning process,” says Hariprriya, who was present at the launch.

Actor and director Arjun Sarja is essaying the role of Karna in the movie. “My role is one of the best in the film. This is also the first time that I am playing a role like this. I’ve always been interested in Kannada literature and this project is sure to give me some insights into an area that I have wanted to get a deeper understanding about,” says Arjun Sarja.

He adds that he has always wanted to play a role like this but never got the opportunity to do so. “I hope this film shapes out well because every actor here is passionate about the character that he or she is playing,” adds Arjun.

A large part of the shooting of ‘Kurukshetra’ will be held at Ramoji Film City Hyderabad. Director Naganna has planned the shooting in a few places in the city as well. Munirathna, the
producer of the film, informs that the film will not have any budget restrictions.

He says that a set will be erected on a vacant land in Bengaluru and some portions of the film will also be shot there. Cinematography will be handled by Jayanan Vincent and V Harikrishna will compose music for the movie.

Elaborating on the project, Munirathna says that in the last 75 years of Kannada cinema, nothing has been done on ‘Kurukshetra’ or anything related to Mahabharata. “This will be the first full-fledged 3D movie and the actors will be drawn only from the Kannada film industry. Bhishma will be played by Ambarish, Duryodhana will be played by Darshan, the role of Karna will be essayed by Arjun Sarja, Ravichandran will play Krishna and Abhimanyu will be played by Nikhil Kumar and Dronacharya will be played by senior actor Srinivas Murthy. Each actor has been chosen after a lot of thought ,” informs Munirathna. The film will be released in 2018.