Director Jayatheertha is testing the waters of a genre new to him, in his next thriller titled, Vanilla. "Contentwise, Beautiful Manasugalu was an emotional subject with a social message. My next film, Vanilla is a murder mystery, a genre attempted for the first time by me. In fact, after I watched the first copy, I asked myself, did I really do this film? I would tell myself, Vanilla will be a lot different, for which I want to prepare the audience," Jayatheertha shares.
Furthering elaborating on the difference, the Kannada director says that Beautiful Manasugalu was dialogue, performance, and expression oriented. Whereas in Vanilla, facts become important when told through the dialogues.
WATCH: Trailer of 'Vanilla'
"Time is an important factor for the plot. The film also explores a message of social concern. The audience should have an eye for detail from start to end. That's when they can understand the subject better. This concept is new to me and I took a whole year to write the script. I have watched almost all kinds of thriller films made in Bollywood, Hollywood and Korean, and worked upon how to bring such subjects to our nativity. I have tried a different kind of narration for Vanilla, and I am eager to know how people will accept or react to this," he says, adding that the filmmaking style will be contemporary.
The director has thrown light upon Capnophobia, (a person who gets scared of anything to do with smoke and smoking): "The characterisation is rarely explored. A unique and fresh role is being played by actor Swathi Konde. Except for a 1933 release film titled 39 steps, that had a similar character, though not directly related to Capnophobio; this is relatively new," he adds.
Jayatheerta intends to bring in virgin subjects. The film has fresh faces- Avinash and Swati Konde playing the lead roles. Ask him if it would help this film, to have new faces and he says, "Yes, it works because established faces come with audience expectations. Wherein newcomers add freshness to the story. One of the challenges I have faced is to portray newcomers' work, keeping commercial aspects in mind."
He informs that the hero is trained by Mandya Ramesh and has displayed promising talent. Swati too has proved her mettle with Beautiful Manasugalu, in which she played an important character. This film has her pushed her to do better.
The film also features Pavana and Ravi Shankar Gowda in crucial roles, along with Giri and Rahman amongst others.
"Joining the team are a few theatre artistes who are coming on screen for the first time," he says.
Vanilla has music by BJ Bharath and cinematography by Kiran Hampapura.