When Suri Sold his Car for Kendasampige

Despite creating enough noise to energise Sandalwood into making quality cinema, behind the scenes Kendasmapige’s director fought a different battle

When Suri thought of Kendasampige, he knew that while the creativity will be out there for the world to see; the pain will be within, noiseless. While the film’s been garnering a great response, we now find out that the director had to sell his car for the film to come through.

“Yes, I had to sell my car. I was quite attached to it but during the production of Kendasampige, I I had to give it away,” says Suri, revealing that there was an initial budget crunch and they did not know where they were placed with finances.

“Everything requires money. I faced some financial difficulties after the release of Kaddipudi. Later when I accepted Dodmane Huduga, I invested all my money in the film,” he reveals.

Although he has got past these difficulties, with the film running at about 40 screens at various mutliplexes, Suri says that it is because of the difficulties he faced that success tastes so sweet. “I have regained my confidence. We have voluntarily decided to restrict screenings at single screens. This week, we hope that our film will reach its peak. Over the last one week, we have earned `1 crore excluding the rental and publicity, which is definitely an achievement for any director. We spent about `2 crore and we hope to get back the returns,” says Suri.

According to him, Kendasampige is proof that a film made by technicians with an intention to bring out a good film backed by a tight script and simple beliefs can work. “Technicians including Sathya Hegde, V Harikrishna and I have started Parimala Factory and we will continue to bring in new talent through this house,” he affirms.

Suri is also glad to note that there is enough encouragement coming from within the Kannada industry. “A lot of celebrities called, especially stars like Puneeth and Yash. I feel such encouragement is important at this stage when other language films are swallowing up our rights. Even though they come as originals or remakes, we still hype up those films. Original scripts can make a lot of difference,” he asserts.

Suri also assures that the next part  of Kendasampige series, Kaage Bangara will not be delayed and will release on time. “We had confusion whether Kendasampige needed songs, but later we did four songs. We are clear about Kaage Bangara and a few scenes have already been shot and I will start after I finish with Puneeth’s film,” he says. Dodmane Huduga’s next schedule will start from October 5

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