JOIN USDr Rajkumar’s popular movie ‘Kasturi Nivasa’ is all set to release again on November 7 in colour and this has elicited interest across all age groups in Sandalwood.
The movie was a super hit when it was first released in 1971. The producer of the movie KCN Gowda had made the movie in black and white and now his son KCN Mohan has fulfilled his father’s dream of making the movie in colour. While the original movie cost Rs 3.75 lakh, the project in colour costs almost Rs two crore.
KCN Mohan confesses that he has indeed carried forward his father’s vision of making the movie in colour. “The movie was supposed to be shot in colour but we had completed almost half the movie and Rajkumar insisted that money should not be wasted but now I am thrilled to see the coloured version,” says Mohan, whose father KCN Gowda has made a majority of Rajkumar films.
Mohan recollects that it is Dr Rajkumar’s simplicity and humility that lives on to this day. “I still remember that he would sit with the entire cast and crew of the film and have lunch. He would treat everybody as equal,” says Mohan.
Working tirelessly on the technical front is Sundar Raj Pathi who owns Digi Magic Studios. He says the colour version is a tribute to all movie-buffs and is a film that today’s generation must watch. “It took us close to two years to work on the coloured version.
We had to work on a five-set process. The old film reel had two lakh and sixteen thousand frames which were old and worn out. We worked to restore it and clear the disturbances to first produce a black and white version,” explains Sundar.
He further states that the new version of black and white was again worked on to fit to the required cinemascope.
“We also roped in Mysore Gopi to work on recording the music all over again to make sure the originality is not lost,” he adds. The family members of Dr Rajkumar hold fond memories of the film.
Shivarajkumar is all set to catch the coloured version of ‘Kasturi Nivasa’ with his family over the weekend. “This is one of my favourite films and I’ve watched it countless times. The character that my father played is a very tough one. His famous line in the film ‘my hands will always face the ground and not point toward the skies’ comes back to my mind. This shows how simple a man he was,” says Shivarajkumar.
He shares that his character in the movie does well to portray all kinds of emotions whether drama, romance, success and coping with failure.
Vinay Rajkumar, grandson of Dr Rajkumar, says that he can’t wait to watch the colour film. “I recently watched the black and white version of the film but watching it in colour will be a whole new experience,” says Vinay.
He sums up saying, “My grandfather plays the character of a man who owns a matchbox factory but he never used his power for wrong purposes. Even in real life, he never misused his power and popularity. This is something to emulate.”