Pawan Kumar and Rakshit Shetty are planning to experiment with something unique in Sandalwood, and it could be a concept that has not been tried before. The two makers plan to combine two films into one full length feature film, a concept which according to them is common in Hollywood, Bollywood and even regional films, but two different subjects with a common ground have not been seen here before, they say.
The makers are planning to make a two-and-a-half hour-long-film. While director Pawan has already zeroed in on his script, actor-director Rakshit is yet to choose a story from the three options he has in mind. City Express spoke to them on their new experimental film and how they plan to go about it.
Moving away from the complex narration of his critically acclaimed Lucia, Pawan has chosen a racy action thriller with dark comedy. “I have written the story and now I am working on the screenplay. The first half will be my story and the second half will be Rakshit’s, and they will be dramatically connected,” says Pawan.
The thought of two different stories by two directors in one film came about for two reasons, reveals Pawan. “Firstly, there is an audience that appreciates our work. They will be in for a double treat by just paying for one movie. Secondly, both the stories were good for a 70 to 80-minute film but not that of feature length. In India, you have to make a film for two hours for it to work for the audience and for us. That’s when we decided to have two films with one title,” he says.
Pawan, who was planning a film with a few senior actors, has now been kept on hold. “While I was looking for a subject, I came across this idea, and secondly, after Lucia, I wanted to take a break from complex narrations. I am busy with the pre-production work of my film, and hope to start shooting sometime soon. Rakshit will take over later,” he says.
Rakshit is still in a dilemma since he has two to three stories in mind, but according to him, he is clear about maintaining the same tempo from the first half of Pawan’s direction. “If two stories are totally in contrast, people might not be in the same state of mind to watch the film after interval. We will take some more time to finalise the stories,” he says.
While the team has kept the crowd-funding option open, a producer has come forward to invest. “We will be meeting the producer soon, after which we will decide whether to go by the producer or crowd-funding concept. We will be sharing our scripts soon, but I normally give it to a few more people to get a better picture of my script,” Rakshit reveals.
Rakshit will be taking up the project after two to three months. During the time, he will be completing two projects currently on his hand.
“I will be off from May 20 for Yogaraj Bhat’s Vaastu Prakara, followed by another film titled Ricky directed by Rishabh Shetty. He had written the script four years ago and he had tried for another actor previously, but that did not work out,” he says.