Blend art, commercial cinema: Prakash Rai

Film chamber felicitates award winners

He was speaking after accepting felicitation by Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber also felicitated national best actress award winner Umashree, Gulabi Talkies Director Girish Kasaravalli and producer Basanth Kumar Patil.

Rai said in Kannada film industry commercial and art genres had remained two islands. Both the islands should come together. Viewers of non-commercial movies are scattered all over the State. Those in the commercial genre should offer infrastructure to take non-commercial movies to a larger audience. “Remembering art movie makers only when they win awards would not help. Established producers and distributors should make efforts to blend both the genres,” he said.

The final goal of a movie is to reach the public. “No matter how many awards my movie wins, the audience should get an opportunity to judge my performance. Viewers should not learn that an actor has performed well in a movie through media reports,” he said.

Public debate

Girish Kasaravalli, director of Gulabi Talkies, said awards for his movie would make him feel happy. But he would be contented only when his movie succeeded in raising a debate among the public.

“Now the industry should look for easier means to reach the movies to a larger audience so that the industry can grow,” he said.

Umashree, who won the national best actress award for her performance in Gulabi Talkies, said since her days in theatre she had worked under many directors and all of them had played major role in her career.