After playing love-struck software engineer Aadi and doting wife with a terminal illness in Love Mocktail, Darling Krishna and Milana Nagaraj take the arc further in Love Mocktail 2. The movie released to packed houses last month. Their roles come at what Krishna and Nagaraj feel is a pivotal time in their careers. Love Mocktail (February 2020) changed the stars for this star couple in the Kannada movie industry.
Nagaraj and Krishna have co-acted and co-produced Love Mocktail and its sequel. They have been together for five years before they tied the knot in February 2021. “We feel good that our films have been accepted well. To be honest, we were under pressure because there were so many expectations. The sequel has a similar flavour, but a different dimension,” he says.
Krishna knows the ropes of the Kannada industry. He started working in Sandalwood, as it is known, a decade ago but his role as Krishna in TV soap Krishna Rukmini and the famous song ‘Darling’ picturised on him in Madarangi (2013) gave him the big break. Darling Krishna’s moniker seems even more apt after he won hearts as Aadi, the lover boy, in Love Mocktail. The success of the movie prompted a sequel. Nagaraj debuted in 2013 alongside Krishna in the adventure film Nam Duniya Nam Style. The duo has grown together and Love Mocktail has been their collective milestone.
Part of the Love Mocktail 2 story unfolds in the surreal locales of Sakleshpur’s coffee plantations. Along with beautiful picturisation, it is the film’s searing emotional intensity and simplistic honesty that connected with the audience. Nagaraj beams with joy, “It’s a great feeling to hear everyone call it a franchise. It’s a fancy word. But there is no funda behind its success. You can’t decide to make the audience like your film. We have worked hard to be here today. We only wrote what we would have liked to see.”
Love Mocktail had disrupted Kannada cinema. For a low-budget film (Rs 2 crore) like that, its worldwide grosses were to the tune of Rs 16 crore. Every character is thought through and hence remembered by the viewers. The couple recalls a hectic 2021. Lockdowns between shootings were spent discussing and writing each scene. “Once we put in on paper, we revisit it after a few days, re-read and redo if required.” Nagaraj adds, “I have heard youngsters of this generation say they can’t believe this kind of love to be true. Commercial films have at least 40 minutes of song and fight sequences. Even the songs in Love Mocktail 2 are montages of the story moving forward.”
About the co-creation process, Nagaraj reveals, “Of course, we argue when working together, but when Krishna is hellbent on something, I understand his intensity. If I’m insistent about something, he understands my take too.” Their personal life has been somewhat similar. The duo had also worked as co-stars in Charlie (2015). “Because we were dating and working together for five years, we don’t feel like we are married. It’s taking time to process. It’s not a typical husband-wife relationship between us. One year just flew past. We have worked very hard and delivered two back-to-back hits. Now I tell Krishna it’s time for a break, for another holiday,” she adds.
Was this life imitating art or art imitating life? They answer, “A lot of it is inspired from our lives. We have grown up watching films in the theatre along with our entire families. It was a conscious decision as filmmakers to portray such great family values. We kept it simple. We wanted families to go together for the film,” Nagaraj explains.
While they are looking forward to promising bilingual projects in the future, as of now, they have sold Telugu and Tamil remake rights. “We were surprised to know from our friends in Chennai that Tamilians also were watching the Kannada movie. Likewise with Hyderabad and Telugu audiences. I’m happy we are taking Kannada cinema forward. We will be more passionate and responsible going forward,” they say on a parting note.
Partners in Art
While Nagaraj is working on a project which took off last year, due to release soon, the husband-wife duo feel the joy of making films together, from writing to casting to production is a different kind of high and they will begin co-writing their next project soon.