All set to break records

Preparations mean loss of sleep, anxiety, and in the case of Shivanna, low BP. On the eve of shooting for Sugreeva, our Hattrick Hero was restless, prompting his daughter to check his blood pressure.

On finding the BP to be low, the medical student advised her father to take things easy. Still, Shivanna, could only sleep for three hours. Cut to producer Anaji Nagaraj, who had not slept properly for an entire week! To preserve his energy and health, Shivanna was seen sipping juice.

The tension around the Raja Rajeshwari Hospital premises was palpable as assistants ran behind Shivanna and heroine Yajna Shetty, along with their make-up men. Those who were assisting director Prashant — Nagashekhar, P N Satya, Omprakash Rao, A P Arjun, Pramod Chakravarthy, Nagendra Magadi and Ananta Raju, were all pictures of tension and anxiety, having almost forgotten to eat.

Composer Gurukiran obliged the scribes, saying there were three bit songs apart from the title track. Anaji then gave details about his attempt to get into the record books.
“We have sent the video of the shoot to both Limca and Guinness Book of Records. We have also paid 400 pounds and registered with Guinness. As this year’s Limca book is already out, they have told us they may include our entry next year,” Anaji revealed and added, “none of the artistes have charged me extra.”

It was time to draw his attention to the film’s story. A story which “all the directors sat and wrote together”. Shivanna plays the role of John Quincy played by Denzel Washington in the 2002 release John Q — A Wonderful Dancer, who tries to realise his dream by getting his son participate in a reality dance show only to see him collapse.
Rushing the child to the hospital, the harassed father finds the whole system ‘conspiring’ to snatch his son away from him — steep fees, bureaucracy and the works.

A desperate Shivanna then resorts to holding some people hostage and even contemplates suicide to aid his ailing son. Will he succeed is what Sugreeva is all about.
Of course, to suit ‘our nativity’, the evils of bureaucracy are highlighted here. It remains to be seen whether Sugreeva goes John Q’s way or bucks the recent trend in Shivanna’s career. By the way, the shooting was wrapped up by 11.55 pm, five minutes less than the stipulated 18 hours.