JOIN USFrom Dharwad to Bengaluru
I was born in Dharwad and spent a better part of my childhood there. I completed my schooling from Karnataka High School, known for its strong values and commitment to education. I later went to KHK Institute of Engineering in Dharwad for mechanical engineering. My education was completed with me shuttling between Hubbali and Dharwad.
I was always drawn to theatre, music and dance throughout my school and college days. Since I was a big fan of Mithun Chakraborty’s dancing style. I used to imitate his steps at family get-togethers and other functions that involved the extended family. I must have been 10 or 12 years at that time and my dance soon became popular.
My first brush with theatre happened later, when I was around 14 or 15 years old. I studied in an all-boys high school and they were staging a play for which they required somebody to play the role of a girl. Though nobody else was ready to take it up, I gladly agreed. That was my first ever stage performance.
The big leap
After I completed my education, my parents and brothers wanted me to do something different with my talent. They didn’t want me to settle down in a salaried profession and instead encouraged me to work towards a career in the field of arts and cinema.
After much persistence, I joined the Adarsha Film Institute in Bengaluru in 1985-86. It was headed by Girish Kasaravalli and doyens of theatre such as B Jayashree, B V Karanth, T S Nagabharana, K Janakiram, who taught there. The course was exhaustive and included all aspects of filmmaking such as mime, playback singing, voice culture, fights, direction and acting. I stood first in almost all the courses.
However, though I learnt a great deal about cinema, I was homesick. I was given an allowance of Rs 200 from home. We were a middle-class family and my parents couldn’t afford more. I would occasionally be given Rs 20 or Rs 50 extra by my brothers too but after all expenses, I would get only about Rs 8 in hand.
The turning point
After the course, I began hunting for a job. I remember all the bus routes even today because there’s really no director I didn’t meet for a job. I took up some small projects and one of them was as an assistant director to Katte Ramachandra. We worked on photo comics. At that time, well-known journalist YN Krishnamurthy, popularly known as ‘YNK’, made meet various people, one of whom was M S Sathyu. After a brief discussion, Sathyu cast me as the lead in ‘Venkataswami Pranaya Prasangagalu’, directed by him, in 1987-88. It had different stories by Masti Venkatesh Iyengar. This was the turning point in my career and there was no looking back since. I later assisted V Somashekhar in directing ‘Ranaranga’(Shivarajkumar’s third film) and Dr Rajkumar- starrer ‘Parashuram.’
What I would have learnt at the University, I learnt during my stint with all these well-known directors. I later got the chance to work with stalwarts like V L Acharya, cinematographer B C Gowrishankar and M R Vittal. I got a big break when I bagged the lead role in a Tamil and Malayalam film. I slowly ventured into direction in television and began adapting novels to television. I was the first person to try this experiment and it turned out to be very successful. At this time, I got the opportunity to work with G V Iyer. He was popular for his work on themes around folklore, commissioned by the central government. He liked my work and we worked together for four years, during which time I gained vast knowledge and experience. Around this time, I also played the role of a father in Puneeth Rajkumar’s first film ‘Appu’ and later played a decisive role in Vishnuvardhan’s ‘Nishyabda.’ I stepped into the world of television with Phani Ramachandra’s ‘Danda Pindagalu’ and later acted in ‘Moodala Mane’, a Kannada teleserial that was telecasted on ETV Kannada. It was directed by late Vaishali Kasaravalli. I also worked as Sangolli Rayanna in a television series of the same name. These small-screen experiences enriched my performance.
Enjoy challenges
It hasn’t been easy to get to where I am today. But I believe it is these challenges that have brought me this far. They not only test your talent but also teach you patience and push your boundaries of creativity.
After two and half decades in cinema and television, I have been given the role of chairman of Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy. I took charge on January 2 this year. Before I could get a hang of my duties, the dates for the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes) were announced. I had to learn everything from scratch and had less than 50 days to design, plan and execute the festival.
We have introduced several new sections this year and have tried to present the best in the limited time that we had. A big achievement of ours was to bring stalwarts of the Indian film industry like Jayapradha, Boney Kapoor, Yash and singer Sonu Nigam to inaugurate festival.
They have each contributed to strengthening the Kannada film industry and gladly agreed to come without charging any fee.
My dream for the Kannada film industry
I have drawn up a few things that I would like to achieve during my tenure as chairman. As the first step in this direction, I would like to archive some of our old Kannada movies. We have had veterans actors and directors who have worked really hard to bring Kannada cinema to where it is today and I would like to preserve their work for posterity. We are working towards the transition of some existing negatives to the digital format. There are about 2000 such negatives, waiting to be restored and preserved. I wish to do at least 200 of them during my term.
We also propose to have a story bank where directors can place their stories. This will bring in a sense of accountability and put an end to plagiarism of content. We wish to introduce an orientation course which will give young actors and directors an idea of how to develop content for the global market and how to market that content. We also want to give more importance to regional language films and, as the first step towards this, have prominent sections dedicated to regional cinema at BIFFes this year.
There are many artists in the Kannada film industry who have worked for over 40 years but have means to financially support themselves. We want to propose free education for the children of these artists, pension schemes for the aged in the industry and medical facilities. We also wish to have our own film complex, built in the two and acres in the Academy. There will be six screens. We could use these screens during the film festival or even let it out at other times. It could be a revenue generator for the Government.
(Suneel is the Chairman of Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy)