If everything had gone right, Pradeep Varma, son of the well-known artist BKS Varma, would have marked his debut in 2014 with Gulaabi Street. But things did not go well and he decided to back out of the project. Starting afresh, the director will now helm a full-length feature film titled Urvi and the subject is again women-centric. “The story of Urvi will revolve around five girls - Sruthi Hariharan, Shweta Pandit, Shraddha Srinath, Bhavani Prakash and a newcomer Jhanvi. Achyuth Kumar is also part of this film. We are going on floors from February 4,” he says.
Pradeep says that Urvi is another name of Kalika and Supreme Goddess of circumstances. “It is a Sanskrit and a Kannada name. This being a female-centric film, Urvi was an apt title. The film opens with different aspects of the girls’ lives and how they all come together and overcome a troublesome situation is Urvi. Written by me, this is a modern tale, set in no recognisable place or time,” he says.
Pradeep has started preparing for his film and the set is getting ready at Tavarakere Bhoot Bangla. “The entire set will be done up in an incredible way and will feature with an Anglo-Islamic architecture,” he says.
The film produced by Ravi Prakash Bhat will have cinematography by Anand Sundaresha and music by Manoj George, a Grammy award winner along with Ricky Kej. The stunts will be done by Dr Ravi Verma.
Sruthi Hariharan, says, “To find a script, which is mostly female-centric is very hard. Urvi, as a film talks about women in the forefront and definitely does not have unnecessary commercial elements. As for the story, we always say men are stronger than women. That does not mean that men have rights to suppress women and women have to surrender to men’s wills and fancies? That’s what Urvi will be all about. But the movie is being directed by a man and the technicians are male, so it should be interesting.”
Shweta Pandit, who is back on big screen with Urvi says, “I always believed that as an actor it is good to play something you love and not anything, for the heck of it. I had felt very bad when his project Gulaabi Street did not take off. I am happy to be working with Pradeep for Urvi. It is a power-packed role and has great scope for performance and my role stands out in the movie. He is conducting a workshop for me and I am loving it.”