Kataka presented by Puneeth Rajkumar and produced by NS Rajkumar marks the directorial debut of Ravi Basrur in Kannada. This music director who is currently scoring music for films such as KGF and Anjaniputra,has also directed movies in Kundapuralanguage, titled Gargar Mandla and Bilindar.
Ravi has zeroed in on a true story, based on black magic, for his Sandalwood debut.
“This is from an incident that took place in state’s coastal belt, where black magic was performed on a 5-year-old girl. Happenings around this event will be presented using artistic liberty in Kataka,” says Ravi Basrur, who adds that he had seven to eight films in hand for his Kannada venture. “When I consulted the team, they said that this was the subject to start with,”he says.
The director is not keen on a regular horror genre, and has brought in an interesting villain in a crab. “It is more of a triangle story set around the father, daughter and the crab. Though, it is a horror movie, you won’t see sadhus or poojas. The world of black magic is entirely different and the movie will focus on the after effect of such rites,” he says.
Interestingly, Kataka will use an animated crab and the filmmakers have thought about it in much detail. “Initially, we had a table work and later we did a fibre modelling of the crab, and approached people who are into 3D modelling,” he says. “Later Pixel Frames worked on the visual effects, coming out with the final version of the crab that will be seen on screen.”This music director-turned-director has scored music for the movie and has paid special attention to the sound. He hastied up with 14 sound-producing companies, who will be bringing in different kinds of musical effects to Kataka.
“I wanted a signature sound for the film and that is why I got in touch with different companies, who have then come up with various sounds… this will be one of the highlights,” he says.Apart from child artiste Shlaga Saligrama and Ashok Raj, playing the lead roles as daughter and father,the film also features Bala Rajvadi and Spandana Prasad among others. Kataka to be distributed by KRG Studios has cinematography by Sachin Basrur.