BENGALURU: R&AW agents, a criminal mastermind who plans to wreck havoc, high-tech scientific inventions... This upcoming sci-fi crime thriller has all the elements that will make you sit at the edge of your seat. What’s more, the movie, titled Stabiliti, has been made by a team of working professionals, who carried out its making as a passion project during weekends. Scripted and produced by a city-based techie Goutham Kanade, the film has been made in Kannada and should cinemas reopen, will be out on the big screen in September or October. “Post that, we will look at an OTT release,” says Kanade.
Shooting for this film began in September last year. Since most of the cast and crew are working professionals themselves, the film took longer to make, especially with the pandemic adding its own set of delays as well. Largely self-funded by Kanade, the film is being made in a budget of Rs 5 lakh, with 10 per cent of the shoot is remaining.
“We finished 90 per cent,which was done in Bengaluru, Hassan, and Kokkada. We have the last climax scene, which has to be shot in Hubballi in July,” says Kanade, who improvised the script based on a four-part script he had worked on in the past. It will feature several newcomers like Kashyap Bhaskar, Sandeep T C, Lakshmi Ambuga and Srinidhi Talak, who will play the lead roles. Artistes like S N Sethuram and Santosh Karki will star in supporting roles. While the making has involved back-breaking work and long hours, Kanade has not minded it. “It was like a stressbuster in these times,” he says.
While not many have ventured into sci-fi films in Kannada, Kanade is confident this film will be liked by many. “It’s not that the Kannada-speaking crowd doesn’t enjoy sci-fi. If you attend a screening of English films like Tenet or Inception, you’ll find that Kannada speaking people are a part of the crowd. Maybe it’s just that people don’t want to take a risk with the genre,” explains Kanade, who isn’t scared about taking this leap of faith.
While there’s still time for the film to hit the big screen, its script and screenplay is also earning praise and awards at film festivals like Indo French International Film Festival, Golden Sparrow International Film Festival, Havelock International Film Festival, to name a few. The latest was an award at the Golden Leaf International Film Festival. Besides this, it was also a semi-finalist at the Los Angeles Feedback Film and Screenplay Festival.If you think there’s a typo in the title of the film, think again. “We didn’t name it Stabiliti for the English word. But to know why we spell it this way, you’ll have to watch the film,” says Kanade.