Siddaramaiah to act in children's film Summer Holidays by Kavitha Lankesh

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is set to act in a bilingual film directed by Kavitha Lankesh.

He is playing a cameo in Summer Holidays, a children’s film with Kavitha’s daughter Esha (13) and nephew Samarjith (16) in the lead. Shooting of his scene is tentatively fixed for Thursday.

Actors Prakash Rai and Suman Nagarkar are playing key roles in the adventure movie featuring five children and a dog called Bheema.

Flooded with requests to watch movies after he caught the blockbuster Bahubali, Siddaramaiah will now act in a scene in which the child characters go to meet the chief mi­nister. The film tracks a fun journey and hints at a crush. About 80% of the movie has been shot in Koppa (Chikkamagaluru district) and Bengaluru.

Making a children’s film had been on Kavitha’s mind for a long time. “When we were kids, we saw films like Nagarahole and Simhada Mari Sainya. Of late, children’s films are being made only for awards and subsidies. There are so few realistic children’s films,’’ she said. To give the film a contemporary look and feel, Kavitha wrote the script using the language children speak with friends.

She is also making it in English. The idea came to her when she was chatting with students from her daughter’s school. “They said they would watch it if it was in English,’’ Kavitha said.

On roping in Siddaramaiah, Kavitha said she liked him as he had never interfered when she was on a jury to select Kannada films for awards.

“Everyone said we would get recommendation letters from politicians in power. But there wasn’t a single such letter from Siddaramaiah,’’ she said.