ACT- 1978, directed by Mansore, is also a writer’s movie in a big way, says T K Dayanand, who has co-written it with Mansore and Veerendra Malllanna (Veeru). “The story, screenplay and dialogues are an important tool in this social thriller,” says Dayanand who has penned the dialogues for the movie, and handled the screenplay with Veeru.
“As a writer, this is my third release, after Benki Patna and Bell Bottom, and the challenges were much bigger than my previous films,” Dayanand says, adding, “The film is a hostage thriller. The bottomline of the subject is exploring the current bureaucratic sets-ups and their ignorance towards the common people’s grief. It thus reflects the responsibilities of government servants. Writing the lines for such stories become experimental because we wanted to bring in our creativity without making it preachy.”
While the subject of ACT- 1978 is close to reality, they had to do a lot of reading to bring it to cinema, says Dayanand, who took a lot of reference from old news reports, consulted police officers, and went through a lot of case studies to do research.
“ACT- 1978 is not a commercial entertainer. It is a story that runs on events, and the narrative and dialogues have been given the maximum importance,” the writer says. “The film also helps in educating the public with the common basic laws, which every person should be aware of.”
The film has cinematography by Satya Hegde and music by Rahul Shivshankar. It stars Yajna Shetty as the protagonist, along with Pramod Shetty, B Suresha, Achyuth Kumar, Shruti, Sanchari Vijay, Avinash, Shobraj, P D Sathish, and Krishna Hebale, along with some theatre artistes playing key roles.