First TV show on the life of Purandara Dasa

The daily soap explores the journey of the 14th-century philosopher and singer through his songs, writes Ram Rakshith V

The Kannada television show ‘Dasa Purandara’ gives an insight into the life of the 14th-century Haridasa philosopher, and saint. Aired in Colors Kannada, the devotional serial was set to be out last year but the pandemic delayed its release.

Purandara Dasa was a singer, and composer. He is called the father of Carnatic music. The makers first brainstormed to finalise the theme of the show. “We discussed people’s expectations from the show,” Sujay Hunsur, the writer of the show, tells Showtime.

Extensive readings and discussions with historians and writers helped him in his scripting process, says Sujay. “Around 16-20 songs of Purandara Dasa are well-known and when we read through the lines of many such compositions, we got enough material to develop a story on his life,” he says.

“For instance, he composed the Ramanama Payasake song when he was in dire straits. One day, his sons wanted to have payasam but the saint couldn’t arrange the sweet dish for his family. He composed this classical melody then. Another song is about how his stepmother tried to poison him. We connected many such incident-narrating classics to know about Purandara Dasa’s life,’’ Sujay says.

The writer believes Purandara Dasa’s works are still relevant today. “Through his compositions, he appreciates gods, raises awareness of the evils in society and spirituality,’’ he adds.

Debutant Deepak Subramanya plays the lead character. ‘’I started working on this project five months ago. To get the physical nuances of the character, I shed 11 kgs and had just one meal a day,’’ he says about his preparations.

‘’I worked on gestures, voice modulation, spoke to many veteran musicians, scriptwriters and researched on the songs of Purandara Dasa,’’ he explains further.

Depicting the simplicity of the philosopher, who is said to have walked barefoot donning a saffron cloth and holding a Tanpura, was a challenge, admits Deepak.

Production

The project, shot on a budget of Rs 70 lakh, wants to be an authentic retelling of the scholar.

The costumes worn by artistes are from the 14th century. However, the makers have given names to only some relatives of Purandara Dasa as there are no records on the original names of other characters.

“I haven’t used words very loosely while writing dialogues. To stay true to the story’s timeline, we haven’t used English, Parsi, Urdu and other languages that got mixed with Kannada in later years. This challenged my writing skills.’’

The serial’s shooting is in progress at the Ravikiran Estate near Kanakapura Road. Some portions were filmed in Hampi.