Rakshit Shetty is a filmmaker who always wants to stay updated with the current entertainment scenario.
The actor-director and producer, who has understood the power of OTT platforms, is currently working at establishing his production house, Paramavah Studios for the digital world.
Rakshit had earlier shared these thoughts on the social media on July 23, on the occasion of his completion of 10 years in the film industry, mentioning that he had taken a break from the Punyakoti (PK) script and has started writing something new and smaller.
That work is going on in full force now. Rakshit and eight other writers have begun the writing exercise and will soon be coming up with a script each, for which the team has been given a month’s time. “I don’t want writers to compromise. We will only take the projects on floors once the scripts are ready, and only if we can finish the film in a month’s time,” says Rakshit, adding, “Till now, the writers were writing one story as a team.
However, I wanted them to come up with their own scripts, which should be a simple one. Out of that, we will be selecting the best three scripts, which we plan to bring out from our production house.” Rakshit has chalked options on how to go about shooting his commercial films and simultaneously taking forward the three projects. “The situation we are in at present does not allow me to shoot the remaining portions of 777 Charlie or take up Hemanth M Rao’s Sapta Sagaradaache Yello, as this film needs us to head to outdoor locations, and requires a huge crowd on the sets.
Though my focus has been on these projects, it is something not possible for us to roll now. Meanwhile, if this kind of situation continues for the next two months, I will go ahead and shoot all these three smaller projects, and plan how to shoot in a controlled environment, where the whole team can get locked inside and the film can be shot at one go,” he says. Meanwhile, Rakshit is upbeat about the OTT market. “OTT caters not just to the Kannada audience, since people from other states can also watch the film for its content.
Secondly, when we make commercial films, we have to keep certain things in mind, but for OTT, we can shoot the film on a small budget and make it look good. Moreover, it is a platform for writers to experiment,” he explains. Talking about his own script, which he is currently penning, Rakshit says it is going to be a unique film, which is something he wanted to do during his short film days. “But then I felt it was too experimental to take such a film to theatres. Lockdown has certainly prompted me to experiment, by not keeping commercial aspects in mind, and pouring my heart out to do what I want to,” he says.