‘Girmit’ features 280 child artistes

Director Ravi Basrur wanted to celebrate children, and got a whole lot of them for this week’s release

Music composer-director Ravi Basrur’s fourth film ‘Girmit’ hit the screens on Friday. The film was a challenging and fulfilling project for Ravi, who has given music to varied films like ‘Ugramm’, ‘KGF: Chapter 1’, ‘Anjaniputra’ and ‘Mufti’.

In a candid chat with Metrolife, he talks about films, music and more.

What inspired you to take up directing?

Whenever I do music for films, I often notice some issues. There might be some lag in the storyline but I don’t comment on it. I feel that I should know the nuances of directing to talk about it; this is why I have taken up film direction. I work on one movie every year now. My past films include ‘Gargar Mandala’, ‘Bilindar’ and ‘Kataka’. I am always on the lookout for newcomers. At one point, even I was new and I want to provide opportunities for others like me.

What is more fulfilling: music direction or film direction?

Music is my passion. Film direction is just a hobby that allows me to experiment and express my thoughts. As a composer, I only create the music but directing allows me to try different things. In ‘Kataka’, I worked with 20 different Hollywood sound effect companies, and this experience helped me with my work in ‘KGF’. I have worked as a music programmer in around 98 films.

How different are the two occupations?

The two are like well-connected husband and wife. Music is an important component of a film, just as direction and cinematography are. All of them need to be in sync for a project to succeed.

Ravi Basrur

What inspired you to make ‘Girmit’?

I observed that families go together to watch most films. Everyone celebrates the hero and heroine, who are adults. I wanted to make a film which would capture the attention of children, and see how they would react to different types of roles done by children.

I was inspired by advertisements and programmes such as ‘Drama Juniors’ and Flipkart Kids Ads where children are the main actors. Unfortunately, such platforms are only able to provide a handful of opportunities. I wanted to give everyone who came for the audition a chance to be on the big screen. This is why Girmit has 280 child artistes in it; it is driven by young talent. All the shots in the film have children in it.

Tell us more about the movie.

The film talks about different tensions and struggles that go into a wedding. It is a typical family entertainer with all commercial elements like comedy, romance and action, among others. The film will make you laugh and cry. I named the film ‘Girmit’ after the namesake snack.

The film includes artistes from 6 to 13-year-olds. They were a talented lot, but it was quite challenging to work with them. We needed almost 100 people to take care of them all.

Another highlight of the film is...

Sandalwood actors like Yash, Radhika Pandit, Sudha Belawadi, Sadhu Kokila, Petrol Prasanna have rendered their voice to the characters.