For PC Shekar, films need to be made with precision. And even though he has made five films in a career spanning six years in Sandalwood, the director believes that films are quite like life; what matters is not the length, but excellence in every department.
When the director came up with his next project, Arjuna, his first priority was to select a cast with a natural tendency for affection. And so he decided on father-son duo, Devaraj and Prajwal.
According to the director, the chemistry between a real life father and son could make magic for a truthful film like Arjuna that has never before been attempted in Sandalwood. “Usually, filmmakers start working on the economics of the film and work around it. When a good story is polluted with commercial value, it does not yield the desired results. Also, today the tendency is to mould the story according to the protagonist. Arjuna is an effort to forego these existing tendencies,” he asserts.
Everyone has to bend to the demands of the script, feel Shekar. “We have done away with the conventional norms. There is no opening song for Prajwal nor do we have many songs to cash in on the audio rights. The film is not based on heroism but has a realistic touch. It has a lot of Kannada essence, especially the language, culture, and ambience. It is a sincere attempt by every artiste and technician,” he says.
Speaking about balancing Devaraj and Prajwal, Shekar credits his man management skills which made it easier to ease the atmosphere when each artiste stepped in. “Both actors have lent immense value to the film. As an actor, Prajwal will demonstrate his acting skills in Arjuna. He is brilliant and can blend into all kinds of cinema,” he says.
The director spent quite some time on the script and other add-ons before starting shoot and after Chaddi Dost he spent enormous efforts on designing the script, locations, characters and costumes. “We took around six months for pre-production. The execution took around one-and-a-half months and post-production took almost eight months. There are five stories running at one point of time and each one is parallely edited. Technically a lot of work was done in the second half,” he reveals.
Shekar, who has established himself in Sandalwood and also made a film in Tamil opines that Kannada artistes have a strong artistic flair. “Every decade, Tamil industry is ruled by a Kannadiga and we have examples like Jayalalitha, Rajinikanth, Prakash Raj, among others. Our strength in acting has an amazing history,” he says.
The film will release in around 200 theatres, this Friday.