Vijaya Prasad, a director who has carved his own niche in the Kannada film industry, is known for blending comedy with double entendre. But his stories always carry a vital message. His next, Totapuri also boasts of interesting content. “It is a simple romantic drama about the coexistence of humans in society. We are used to seeing stories about religious coexistence, portraying bloodshed and riots.
However, the speciality of Totapuri is that it has characters from different backgrounds who live in peace and harmony. The film is based on things I’ve observed in life and some of my own experiences of having travelled with people of different religions from my childhood,” says the director. Vijayaprasad is someone who has found a lot of appreciation for his writing.
When asked about his writing process, he says, “My stories are drawn from my life experiences. I’m a keen observer of everything around me. I see the good, the bad, the light and the darkness. An incident or an issue should haunt me to come up with a subject. I build characters and dialogues simultaneously and then form the story. It is only later that I develop it as a full-bound script.”
Ask Vijayaprasad, how he manages to infuse adult comedy and a social message in his films, he says, “Since I lost my father when I was young, I got to explore the world very early in my life. It helped me see the reality behind many faces. I understood the difference between what’s real and what’s not. I went in-depth about understanding the world and realised that it’s all about being happy and keeping everybody around you also happy. That’s why I intend to entertain through my films and in life as well,” signs off the filmmaker.