Director Nagashekar believes that movies can be entertaining and socially relevant. “Cinemas should be more than a commercial flick,” he says. “What better way, than a silver screen, to get across the right kind of message to an audience.”
Maasthi Gudi is his fifth film and the director says that in all his projects so far he has tackled social themes: “My first film Aramane was about family and togetherness, the second Sanju Weds Geetha on the cruelty of child rape and Mynaa was on the suffering of a physically challenged girl who only asked for courage and not concern. With Maasthi Gudi, I am tackling a larger issue of global warming and on the importance of forests... Fortunately or unfortunately, whatever we see on the big screen is currently taking place.”
He says watching Maasthi Gudi will be like entering a forest. “Ask children, what they are doing for summer holidays and they say swimming, cricket camp or computer games. Do parents even think of showing their children how a forest looks like? Therefore, we have had all kinds of animals, including the wild ones that live in a forest, in our film. With Maasthi Gudi I want to make an impact on our future generation,” he says.
A director, who goes by good stories, says writing a screenplay is the toughest part of making a film. “It becomes all the more difficult when we have to sum up a real incident in just two-and-a-half hours,” says Nagashekar, who usually takes six months to work on a story and atleast five months on the movie’s music, before he starts shoot. “I never take a step forward till I am fascinated by the screenplay and the music,” he adds.
He is known for casting the right actors for every movie and he reveals his
secret. “Even when I sit down to write a script, I imagine actors who can play the characters... till date I have only cast them and I have never compromised on this. For Maasti Gudi, I knew that only Vijay, Kriti Kharbanda, Amulya, Rangayana Raghu and Suhasini will fit the bill. To me, acting is not just delivering lines. The actors must carry the characters, the emotional content of the story and the director’s vision,” he says.
Nagashekar says that clarity of thought and vision is what guides you to perfection. “If I am confused, then I would leave others confused as well,” he says. “I am clear about what I want.”