Filmmaking in Kannada has come a long way as it has struggled to hold its forte amidst strong competition from Tamil and Telugu. However, the new genre Kannada directors have managed to attract and retain the attention of the youth with new themes, new locales and new actors. Speaking while on the shooting location of his second film, Neer Dose, director Vijay Prasad said, “I stepped into the industry after my stint as a director for small screen. Shooting for silver screen is a different experience. This movie has a couple of senior actors like Jaggesh, Ramya, Dattana and Suman Ranganathan.”
Interestingly, actress Ramya is playing the role of a sex worker after being convinced by a strong story line, narrated by Vijay Prasad with whom she worked for his first film, Sidlingu which received rave reviews. Busy shooting a ‘bus sequence’ with actor Jaggesh, Vijay explained, “I have currently completed 40 per cent of the shooting. Slowly my thoughts, my suggestions are taking fruitful steps along with these actors who are part of the film.”
Director Chaitanya of Aa Dingalu fame recently hit the screen with his comedy film Parari. In fact, he is more into corporate and commercial ad film making and according to him, a director is like a super manager. “As a director, one has to deal with an actor or a cinematographer who are also creative people. I have to channelise all their creativity towards the vision I have. If you are too imposing, then they may feel they are contributing nothing. The situation is dangerous when they resist whatever you tell them. Otherwise, they will listen and continue to do what they want to do. For me, it is always team work. I make them feel that it is their product, their film. And, that has been my style of working on the sets.”
Further, a few directors lauded people who work ‘behind the scenes’ and said they are the people who sacrifice their personal glory and work towards making a good film. “I get different kinds of sparks from the people who are working with me. From the spot boys, the person who brings tea to the junior artists, my assistant directors, the make up person, we can’t pick and choose who stands out amongst them,” said Vijay.
Chaitanya has been associated with cinematographer Venu and editor Hari right from his first film. He said, “Venu and Hari almost think like me now. Venu knows what kind of films I make. Hari is my task master who edits it brutally. He only looks into what is good for the film. I was working with Anoop Seelin for the first time in Parari. I studied how he composes music. He had a mind of his own. Far younger than me, I had given him freedom for the creative bit and also took his opinion.”
“As for the actors, Shubha Poonja, Sharavanth, Shrunga and Jahnavi, I chose them after auditioning and it worked well. I gave them their space but at the same time I made sure that they don’t go overboard,” said Chaitanya who specifically mentions about his four assistant directors who have played a very important role in his career. “I play and they execute. I have people who assist me in art department and planning. I also have an associate who controls all of them. I would like to say production manager, associate director, executive producer and the art director are the unsung heroes of a film,” he explained.
Nowadays, most directors have been caught by the bug of using the latest technology in their films. However, Vijay Prasad said, “The subject Neer Dose, which I am currently working on does not need too much of technology as the story deals with more of dramatic emotions from the actors. Here, the background of the lead actor and other characters is very important. Of course, technology is needed in today’s world but the disadvantage of this is that it has snatched away lot of people’s work,” he said.
The biggest challenge is how to cope up with the new technology coming up almost every day. “Earlier, we could not see the final images, which is possible now with the help of the monitor. No doubt, this has given a lot of perfection, in terms of film making but it has also caused indiscipline among some technicians,” said Chaitanya.
Senior actor Jaggesh who has been in the industry for the past thirty years considers shooting spots as his school of learning. On the sets of Neer Dose, Jaggesh told us how film making has changed over the years. He said, “Shooting is something which I consider as God’s blessing to me. So, I dedicate myself to it completely. I get more involved when it comes to strong story lines. I am mostly into comedy roles, which can touch everybody’s heart and I am still running the show because I am attracting people with my comical avatars,” he said.
Recalling the earlier shooting days, Jaggesh said, “Those were the days, when films were done with back projection. I have seen 15 people assisting the directors and at least 10 people helping the camera person. The technology has changed a lot and so, we see lesser people on the sets. Now nothing is impossible. But those were the days when we had no proper equipment but we saw full houses. Today, there is everything but audiences are not coming to theatres,” he concluded.