He is just about recovering from a neck injury he suffered while shooting Brindavana, but Darshan would rather be at work than rest further. Back on the sets of Brindavana, he says, “First class aagi edina amma. (I am doing first class).
Perhaps it’s the excitement of Ambareesha, the film Darshan’s doing next on the land mafia that has him eager to finish with pending schedules. “According to a survey, there were hundred of lakes in Bangalore during Kempegowda’s tenure which have disappeared. Today people don’t really know if their property is legal or not because it could just be built over a lake. We took a cue from this for Ambareesha. We want the message to go out that people need to be alert to all factors when they build a house,” says Darshan.
In Ambareesha, Darshan will share screen space with Rebel Star Ambreesh whom he fondly calls Appaji. “The film is not based on Appaji’s life, neither is any character based on him. In fact, Appaji will be playing Kempegowda. He is the only pe rson who can do justice to the character,” he says.
Wanting to explore different kinds of cinema, it was Darshan who chose to work with Mahesh. “I have watched all his films and enjoyed the themes he picks. When Mahesh approached me with the idea of the film, I was immediately interested.
Mahesh wanted Chintan to write the script which he did. Today, there is always so much noise around a film title. You will see that Mahesh has matched the story to the title,” he says.
With several hits one after the other, most believe that Darshan is Sandalwood king. “It’s all hype created by the media, and thankfully I don’t pay much heed to it.
I believe that every artiste has his/her own trajectory and he/she follows that. I don’t mind delivering a flop. Just the way a hit excites me, a flop will not keep me down. Right now, I have only two things on my mind. One is that producers should benefit from casting me in their films and secondly, my films must appeal to audiences aged 6 to 60,” he says.