<p>In November first week, noted industry members gave glowing reports to the Kannada film Kamblihula and that took cinegoers by surprise. It was an unheralded film. The curiosity factor convinced people to give the rookie team a chance.</p>.<p>A month after its release, the ‘Kamblihula’ team is grateful to everybody who stood by it. Directed by Navan Sreenivas and starring Anjan Nagendra, Sandhya Arakere, Deepak Rai Paanaaje and Sampath Raj, ‘Kamblihula’, shot in and around the Western Ghats, is a coming-of-age film.</p>.<p>Nataraj (essayed by Anjan) is a civil engineer who aspires to be a filmmaker. He falls in love with Swati, daughter of a Malayali tea vendor. As Nataraj’s career struggles to find a footing, his relationship faces a test of survival. The film tries to balance this love story with themes of friendship, smuggling and the mother sentiment.</p>.<p>Once favourable reviews started pouring in for the film, the makers needed industry members to vouch for it. “Film writer Dayanand T K watched the film and asked director Yogaraj Bhat to watch it too. Bhat sir gathered several directors for a screening and that’s when several celebrities spoke about the film on social media,” Anjan tells <span class="italic">Showtime</span>. Popular filmmakers like Rishab Shetty, Anup Bhandari, Simple Suni, and Kiran Raj spoke highly of the film and urged people to watch it.</p>.<p>The film jostled for space and attention between hit movies like ‘Kantara’ and ‘Gandhada Gudi’ but the makers looked at the brighter side of things. “I am not a known face. So it was tough to pull the crowds to the theatres. However, since people were flocking to theatres for ‘Kantara’ and Gandhada Gudi’, we went to those shows and campaigned for our film. We couldn’t have done this if we had tried to release during the peak pandemic time,” says the debutant. The movie completed a 25-day run, a result which looked impossible in the beginning. Anjan says the team learnt a lesson on how to make a ‘small’ film and survive. Interestingly, another Kannada film with rookies, called ‘Dharani Mandala Madhyadholage’, has got a positive response from critics and is hoping to get more screens.</p>.<p>“The biggest challenge was to find distributors for the film. Many big<br />distributors either asked us to push the release by three-four months or promised a shorter-stay in theatres. Eventually, the distributors who bought the critically-acclaimed ‘Gilki’, bought our film. Single screens called us post the positive reviews but we had to screen our film first for them to feel convinced about it,” recollects Anjan, who grew up acting in theatre from his school days.</p>.<p>‘Kamblihula’, made on a budget of 1.4 crore was able to break even, and Anjan reveals that the producers have almost signed the television and OTT rights with Colours Kannada and Voot respectively. “Once that’s done, we will enter the profit zone,” says Anjan, adding that a sequel of the film is on cards. </p>
<p>In November first week, noted industry members gave glowing reports to the Kannada film Kamblihula and that took cinegoers by surprise. It was an unheralded film. The curiosity factor convinced people to give the rookie team a chance.</p>.<p>A month after its release, the ‘Kamblihula’ team is grateful to everybody who stood by it. Directed by Navan Sreenivas and starring Anjan Nagendra, Sandhya Arakere, Deepak Rai Paanaaje and Sampath Raj, ‘Kamblihula’, shot in and around the Western Ghats, is a coming-of-age film.</p>.<p>Nataraj (essayed by Anjan) is a civil engineer who aspires to be a filmmaker. He falls in love with Swati, daughter of a Malayali tea vendor. As Nataraj’s career struggles to find a footing, his relationship faces a test of survival. The film tries to balance this love story with themes of friendship, smuggling and the mother sentiment.</p>.<p>Once favourable reviews started pouring in for the film, the makers needed industry members to vouch for it. “Film writer Dayanand T K watched the film and asked director Yogaraj Bhat to watch it too. Bhat sir gathered several directors for a screening and that’s when several celebrities spoke about the film on social media,” Anjan tells <span class="italic">Showtime</span>. Popular filmmakers like Rishab Shetty, Anup Bhandari, Simple Suni, and Kiran Raj spoke highly of the film and urged people to watch it.</p>.<p>The film jostled for space and attention between hit movies like ‘Kantara’ and ‘Gandhada Gudi’ but the makers looked at the brighter side of things. “I am not a known face. So it was tough to pull the crowds to the theatres. However, since people were flocking to theatres for ‘Kantara’ and Gandhada Gudi’, we went to those shows and campaigned for our film. We couldn’t have done this if we had tried to release during the peak pandemic time,” says the debutant. The movie completed a 25-day run, a result which looked impossible in the beginning. Anjan says the team learnt a lesson on how to make a ‘small’ film and survive. Interestingly, another Kannada film with rookies, called ‘Dharani Mandala Madhyadholage’, has got a positive response from critics and is hoping to get more screens.</p>.<p>“The biggest challenge was to find distributors for the film. Many big<br />distributors either asked us to push the release by three-four months or promised a shorter-stay in theatres. Eventually, the distributors who bought the critically-acclaimed ‘Gilki’, bought our film. Single screens called us post the positive reviews but we had to screen our film first for them to feel convinced about it,” recollects Anjan, who grew up acting in theatre from his school days.</p>.<p>‘Kamblihula’, made on a budget of 1.4 crore was able to break even, and Anjan reveals that the producers have almost signed the television and OTT rights with Colours Kannada and Voot respectively. “Once that’s done, we will enter the profit zone,” says Anjan, adding that a sequel of the film is on cards. </p>
