Do a little soul-searching
BANGALORE: Shankar B, who is debuting as an independent director with the film Antharathma, wants to convey a message to the society, especially to those whose emotions of love or hate are excessive. He says such souls will attain neither swarga nor naraka after death.
“The objective of this film is to caution people not to be too attached to their loved ones. I also want to tell people not to have enmity with others,” says Shankar.
“I watch English films. I got the inspiration for ‘Antharathma’ from them but it is not based on a real-life incident,” Shankar says while talking about his inspiration for the movie.
The film has Mithun Thejasvi, Vishaka Singh, Rohan Gowda, Umasri, Rangayana Raghu and Harish Raj in the starcast. Vishakha Singh has acted in the recently released film Housefull.
Shankar used to work as a property consultant and owns a cable network at Koramangala.
He says that he took a sixmonth course in direction at KANFIDA and worked as an associate to Koodlu Ramakrishna for Thamaashegaagi and Bettadapura Dittamakkalu a few years ago.
Shankar claims that he had introduced a unique concept - corporate selling - to promote audio cassettes and CDs.
“Through this concept, we succeeded in selling more than one lakh CDs of ‘Antharaathma’.
We have tied up with Pratham Motors, Sangeetha Mobiles, Konark Car Accessories and Cable Operators. They buy the CDs in bulk. They present ‘Anthraathma’ CDs as gifts to their customers. The CDs contain advertisements of those companies apart from the songs. It is the first time that a Kannada film audio CD is being sold through corporate selling,” he says.
Well-known Bollywood playback singers such as Sonu Nigam, Sunidhi Chauhan, Kunal Ganjawala, Rajesh Krishnan, Karthik and Mangala rendered the songs while Giridhar Dhiwan composed the music.
He also says that he has spent lot of money on graphics for Antharaathma. “Suman Ranganath acted in an item song. I know that her dancing skills will set the screen on fire. I included the song because the script needed it. Diganth makes a guest appearance,” he says.
Two of the songs have been picturised in Dubai. The film is expected to hit the silver screen either in December or January.
maheswarareddy@expressbuzz.com