JOIN USSandalwood pans on real life
The difference between life and the movies is that a script has to make sense, and life doesn’t,’ said American director Joseph L Mankiewicz once. But at a time when experimentation is the byword in Sandalwood, people are increasingly opting to focus on the nitty-gritties of real life by making projects based on true incidents.
With fresh concepts being appreciated, Vikram Yoganand is keeping his fingers crossed for his new project. Starring Sindhu Loknath, the movie ‘Heegondhu Dina’ spans a single day in a person‘s life. “The story is about a girl with her own set of aspirations and how she needs to reach a certain place in an hour to fulfil her dreams. The story starts at 6 am and goes on till 8 am,” he says.
Asked about the thinking behind the concept, he says, “Apart from being a director, I’m also a cinematographer and editor and this format challenged the artiste in me in all these aspects.”
Pointing out that the screenplay and shoot had to be planned meticulously, he adds, “Such projects challenge the director a lot as a lot of details have to looked into.”
The Kannada cinema-goer‘s openness to newer formats has excited directors like Arjun Anathi and led him to try something similar. His upcoming movie ‘Pradesha Samachara’ will also be shot in a constricted format - from 6 pm to 6 am. “My subject revolves around Independence Day and how it’s just a public holiday for most of us and nothing beyond that. To showcase the relevance of the subject, I had to shoot in this capsule format,” he explains.
Many challenges come into play while doing such a project because the shoot can be done only during the actual time mentioned in the script. “When I was trying to showcase evening time in the movie, we had to shoot on the actual busy streets with office goers. And for quieter street shots, we had to wait till 12 am,” he says.
It’s not just directors who face challenges when working in such projects. Actor Naveen Thirthahalli, who will soon be seen in ‘Andhagaara’, a thriller movie based on a story that happens during one night, says that maintaining the same emotional frame of mind throughout 45 days of shooting was quite a challenge. “When an actor is also working in other projects, maintaining the same reactions for such a role can be quite a task,” he says.
Like others, Naveen too is hopeful that the Kannada film audience is looking for a change.
“Every year around 180 Kannada films are released, of which a big chunk will be romance-based projects and action movies.
People want to hear and see new stories and such formats are the answer to that,” he says.