Shilpa Ganesh, who is producing Picture under her Golden Movies banner, steps into a new creative space with the bilingual Kannada–Tulu family entertainer directed by Sandeep Bedra and starring Nithyaprakash Bantwal.
The film’s talking point is its second single 'Gokulada Radhe', which also marks Shilpa’s debut as a playback singer in both Kannada and Tulu. She shares vocals with singer Jaskaran Singh, best known for 'Dwapara' from Krishnam Prayana Sakhi. The Kannada lyrics is written by Arasu Antare, while Kirthan Bhandari has penned the Tulu version.
Composed by Samuel Aby, the track was filmed in Kashmir, and has been received warmly. For Shilpa, the move into singing was unexpected but organic. “Samuel Aby encouraged me to try playback singing. He was confident I could do it,” she says, adding, “My husband (actor Ganesh) always knew I could sing, and he was happy I made this attempt. What’s overwhelming is that the audience listening to the song is surprised. They didn’t know this side of me, and it is overwhelming to see their response.”
Asked why she waited so long, she keeps it simple. “Ganesh and I don’t push ourselves into things just because we can. If it has to happen, it happens at the right time. This film was made under our production house, and I finally decided to try. Fortunately, it worked out well.”
Shilpa also reveals that her daughter Charitrya is a good singer, and shares that she just might sing for a Ganesh film someday.
On singing along with Jaskaran Singh, Shilpa says, “He is an amazing singer. Matching his voice was challenging, but also very inspiring.”
Picture is written by Sandeep Bedra, who also handles screenplay and dialogues. The technical team includes cinematographers Santosh Rai Pathaje and KS Chandrasekhar, editor Raju Aryan, choreographers Dhananjay B and Shriraju, art directors Radhesh and Santosh Poojary, and stunt director Thriller Manju.
The film also stars Amrutha Sud, Devadas Kapikad, Naveen D Padil, Aravind Bolar, and Bhojaraj Vamanjoor.