After earning name and fame with the success of Pai Vaibhav Hotels India Ltd, Ajay has decided to realise his long-cherished dream of making a Kannada film. Shooting of a few Kannada films at his residence and friendship with others associated with Kannada film production had helped Ajay to implement his plan. “I have nourished the ambition of associating with Sandalwood for a quite long time. My brother Sujay Pail also supported me while my father Jagannath Pai was not inclined initially,’’ says Ajay.
Ajay’s tryst with Kannada film industry began when Saravana, a co-director, met him. Ajay has expressed his willingness to produce a film provided it had a good script and a dedicated director to handle the megaphone.
After a few months, Saravan introduced Amarnath, a prospective director, to Ajay. “Amarnath narrated the script to me and I was convinced with his narrative skills. The script was very interesting. I explained about it to my parents and though they were reluctant initially, I succeeded in convincing them. After getting my parents’ nod, I asked the director to go ahead with the film Sivamani,’’ explains Ajay.
Ajay is known for his reputed hotels in Jayanagar and Mysore.So does he expect to repeat the magic in Sandalwood? “I am confident of repeating the success. I embarked to make this film because its script is very interesting.
In this film, the script is the hero and we have not prepared the script keeping a particular hero in mind. I gave complete freedom to director Amarnath to select the artistes and he selected Murali and Sharmila Mandre as the lead pair who have performed very well,’’says Ajay.
He is all praises for Murali’s acting in stunt sequences without a dupe. He also appreciates character artistes Avinash, Shobaraj and Vinaya Prakash for their co-operation and commitment during the shooting of this film. “I am very happy that Shobaraj is dubbing his voice in this film while Avinash also evinced a keen interest during the dubbing,’’ says Ajay.
What are the other specialities of this film? “I have provided for everything that has been asked. The music will be an added value in this film. Music director Veer Samarth has done a good job. We have engaged well-known playback singers such as Hariharan, SPB, Shreya Goshal, Karthik, Shankar Mahadevan and Sonu Kakkar, a well-known Punjabi folk singer,’’ adds Ajay with confidence.