'Jackie' goes on floors

Power Star Puneeth’s new Kannada film Jackie went on floors recently at Kantheerava Studio. Produced under his home banner, Jackie is Puneeth’s 14th film and his first film with Duniya Suri. The team has already chalked out a 95-day-shooting schedule in Bangalore, Mysore and in some parts of Gujarat.

Jackie is Puneeth’s pet name in the film. He will be playing a rough guy, who solves problems for all. South Indian actress Bhavana, who shot to fame in the Tamil film industry, will be Puneeth’s female lead.

The coming together of Suri and Rajkumar family for this film was not an accidental one. Both sides had a wish to work together and after long discussions, have come out with Jackie. Raghavendra Rajkumar, one of the producers of the movie, confirms it, “After watching Duniya, I was impressed by its superior technical quality. Puneeth also showed interest in working with Suri. So, we invited him to our house for a discussion. And the concept of Jackie took birth.”

Director Suri, who is known for maintaining his script and characters a secret, did not reveal much about the film. “I have my own way of film-making and Puneeth has his style of working. Now, we have joined together to offer something different to the audience. This film is all about how life takes a turn for Jackie and the way he faces the challenges. One thing I can assure you about this film is that it will be different from Puneeth’s earlier films,” Suri says.

Puneeth had little to say about his character. “Working with Suri will be a new experience for me. As a viewer, I loved his film Inti Ninna Preetiya very much for its aesthetic components and well-fitting dialogues. As of now, I am fully concentrating on Jackie to make it one of the finest entertainers.”

Actress Bhavana was a bit liberal in talking about her character as compared to Suri and Puneeth, who sat tight-lipped throughout the press meet. “I am playing an innocent girl called Laxmi in this film. As I was told, I will be seen in salwar and langa davani in most of the scenes.”

Actor V Ravichandran sounded the clapperboard for the movie in the presence of many noted film personalities. S Narayan, M S Rajashekhar, Prakash, Rockline Venkatesh, Aindrita Ray, Guru Kiran, Gurudutt and many others from Sandalwood greeted the team on the occasion.

The film has five songs penned by Yogaraj Bhat and Jayanth Kaykini. Harikrishna is composing the music and Satya Hegde is capturing Jackie on camera.