Story of Gultoo based on cyber crime in city

Made by a team of engineers, it features Pawan Kumar, director of Lucia and U-Turn, in the role of a hacker. Rapid digitisation and the advent of e-commerce is what triggered the Kannada film 'Gultoo'.

Bengaluru, with its pool of tech-savvy people, plays a central role in the film, as it does in cyber crime. First time director Janardhan Chikkanna says he wanted his debut to be a crime thriller. "My research helped me dig out facts and figures to build the story," he says.

Lead actor Naveen is also a newcomer. He was Janardhan's classmate when they were studying engineering. Pawan Kumar, famous as the director of Lucia and U-Turn, plays a techie called Phaneesh Nandimath.

"He is named after a classmate who was good at hacking. I took his help to finetune the technical aspects. Naming the character after him was a surprise I had saved for him," says Janardhan.

Naveen and Janardhan used to make documentaries in college. Naveen dropped out to pursue his passion for filmmaking. Sonu Gowda, who plays an instructor at a computer training institute, has at least two shades to her character.

"In the first half you see her controlled in her actions and movements. She undergoes a huge transformation in the second part," says Janardhan.

Naveen and Sonu form the lead pair. The movie also features Avinash, who essays the role of an investigating officer.

Gultoo is written and directed by Janardhan Chikkanna, co-written by Avinash Lakshmaiah and produced by Prashanth Reddy and Devaraj Ramanna.

What actors say

PAWAN KUMAR: "I could easily connect with my character as I would have become a
software professional had I not entered the film industry. I read extensively about social networking sites and privacy."

SONU GOWDA: "I am not a student of engineering. I am from a commerce background.
Initially, it was a little difficult to understand the technicalities that went into my character."

AVINASH: "This film is made by a group of enterprising youngsters who have put their
experience into it. The screenplay and narration are powerful."

What title means: Rearrange the word 'Gultoo' and it reads 'logout,' a computer term.