On his first day as a psychology professor at a new university, Dr Shyam Prasad, starts off on the wrong foot with his students. Realising his error, he attempts to familiarise himself with the students. As an ice-breaking exercise, he suggests that the students share an embarrassing experience. Met with stony silence, he volunteers. Thus begins the story of his meeting with a sex worker a few years ago. Released on the YouTube channel Depthofthoughts filmhouse on March 26, Gutrugooooo has clocked in 86,648 views. Shooting for the 15-minute film began in March last year, but the lockdown threw a spanner in the works.
“The trigger for the story was a message I received on WhatsApp, which I later improvised and shaped into the current script,” says Kishan Badarinath, who wrote, edited and directed the film. The techie-turned-filmmaker says that he wanted to try his hand at something that was challenging for him as a director. “We shot with Red Gemini to create a scene in a brothel and a university, which are two different worlds. It was challenging and exciting at the same time. We wanted the brothel portion lit partially for the ambience and also experimented with long takes to get best out of the actors’ performances,” he says.
Actor Sridhar KS plays the professor, while the role of the sex worker, Nayana, is played by Ganavi Laxman. “While writing the script we were sure about Sridhar sir for the professor’s part, but we had to brainstorm a bit for the part of Nayana because we wanted to get an actor whom the audience would not have expected in that role,” says Badarinath. After Laxman’s girl-next-door role in the teleserial Magalu Janaki, she fit the role perfectly, he adds.
One question that he is often asked is the meaning of the film’s name. Not revealing much, Badarinath hints that the name connects the beginning of the film with the end. “I would like the audience to discover it for themselves and trust me, they won’t be disappointed. Also, I thought it would be unique to have a sound as an identity.”The movie has won the Jury Special Award in Europe Film Festival UK (November 2020), Port Blair International Film Festival (December 2020) and honourable mention at Beyond Earth film festival season 7 (2021).