Amar is foraying into the film industry as a director, and is making his debut with a film titled ATM. Though the normal expansion of ATM is ‘Any Time Money’, Amar’s film is ‘Any time Murder’. An expert in animation, the first-time director is taking up a real life incident and turning it into film. “I have chosen my subject from an incident where a woman officer at a bank was brutally attacked by a man at an unguarded ATM kiosk, which took place in 2013. The idea of converting this incident into a film came to me in 2015, when news was floating that the culprit was yet to be arrested. When I dug deeper into the subject, I learnt that the man was a pshyco killer, I felt it was an interesting topic to begin with, “Amar tells City Express.
The director, though starting with the ATM attack, traces the two years after the incident. Incidentally, Soorya, who plays the culprit in the film, was not allowed to shave his beard and hair for almost one-and-a-half years to suit the role,” says Amar, whose film also involves a reporter and someone from the CBI. The director brings in a a love story, which is later linked to the ATM attack. “I have concentrated more on the ATM issue and the killer,” he says.
The director has made short films and has been associated with a feature film before he turned into director. Though the film was planned in 2015, it could go on floors only at the end of 2016. “My work in animation helped me with movie-making. And I didn’t want my first film to be a commercial one. In an attempt to be experimental, I took up this subject.” he says.
The director approached the lady who was attacked at the ATM to take her permission. “She was okay with it, but when we met her, she was still disturbed from the incident. In fact, we wanted to shoot at real locations, where the incident took place. But since getting permissions was a problem, we had to recreate the whole structure,” says the director, who also clarifies that Shuddhi, directed by Adash H Eshwarappa, had one aspect of the ATM story. “My film has lot of relevance to the real incident,” he says.
Apart from Soorya, ATM features Vinay, Chandu, Hemalath and Shobhita. The film is produced by SV Narayan and has two music directors - Jeet Singh and Ravi Dev. Cinematography is by SK Rao.