Sandalwood always puts up an impressive show when it ropes in Hollywood technicians. The upcoming Indo-British film Aake, directed by KM Chaitanya has an entire crew from Britain on board.
To start with there is Carl Austin, the screenwriter of many English films including Aishwarya Rai’s Provoked, who has written the screenplay for this adapted story. Chaitanya has co-written it with Austin. Aake, we hear, is on the power of a woman’s affection.
The film that has elements of mystery, horror and suspense has Ian Howes as the Director of Photography. He was the operating cameraman for Harry Potter. Aake will also see Paul Burns, who worked in Games of Thrones, as its production designer.
“The film, starring Chiranjeevi Sarja and Sharmiela Mandre, will have only two technicians from here and the rest are people who have worked in various Hollywood films,” says the director.
The film now in its post-production stage, and people are curious how this Indo-British team will work for a Kannada film. The director replies, “I am a Kannadiga in mind... and one can’t get more Kannadiga than me, actor Chiranjeevi and executive producer Yogish. All of us are deeply rooted in our culture. The technicians from Britain are writers we brought in for their creativity, the team for their discipline, then for the sensibilities with colour, and all of this is to tell a Kannada story well.” The director compares the collaboration to a tree, saying, “a tree welcomes the rain and air but stays rooted to the earth.”
Chaitanya found it interesting to work with foreign technicians who, he says, bring with them a different kind of work ethic to the sets. “Audience ultimately looks for a good story that is well told,” says the director, who adds, “It does not matter to them if you shoot with a foreign DOP or an Indian one... Today we have people such as Satya Hegde or HC Venu whose work is of international standard." For the team, it is interesting to collaborate with foreign technicians. "The way we look at emotions and the way they look at them are different. We are more sentimental, while they are more withdrawn. So there is a lot of give and take of cultures.”
Chaitanya says that every technician from abroad had a version of the screenplay with them and read each scene before it was shot. This adds more rigour to the process of filmmaking, he says, “so many people look at what you are doing.”
The film’s shooting took place in London and Bengaluru over 44 days, which had dialogues written by Rohit Padaki. With the couple of English actors, the film also features Balaji Manohar and Amaan who played Muneer in Aa Dinaglu, along with Sneha Acharya. Chaitanya says that Sharmiela plays a mature role and Chiru has grown as an actor in the film. “If not for our friendship, he wouldn’t have agreed to do this film,” says the director.
For Chaitanya, it was his previous movie Aatagara’s success that led him to Aake. “Though I knew the producer Sunanda Murali Manohar from UK, from Aa Dingalu days, and had stayed in touch with him, we didn’t have an opportunity to work together,” says the director. “They later contacted Yogish with the story, who put them on to me and he became the executive producer for Aake.”