Sharan is one of the earliest comedians to make a transition into leading roles, and most of his films as the hero played to his strengths as a comedian. However, Sharan finds himself at a stage where he needs to experiment with the kind of characters he plays now.
Jadeshaa K Hampi’s Guru Shishyaru is one such film to bring Sharan’s talent to the fore. In this film, co-produced by director Tharun Kishore Sudhir, Sharan plays a Physical education teacher in this sports drama.
“Guru Shishyaru is well within my zone. It is like playing on the same ground, but this time, it’s a different game. The usual mannerism of Sharan won’t be seen a lot in this film. The entertainment quotient will still be there through the kho-kho games,” says Sharan, ahead of the film’s release on September 23.
“The credit for conceiving a subject on kho-kho should go to two people - the director (Jadeshaa) and creative head (Tharun),” Sharan adds.
Sharing his experience of working in Guru Shishyaru, Sharan says, “Anything different and new has always caught my attention. Acting in this film made me learn a different kind of art, and it was physically challenging to play this role.”
Admitting that he is a director’s actor, Sharan says, “Any film is a director’s show, and my job ends when I lock the story and they finalise the cast and technicians. Everything else is the director’s call, and I just focus on the acting. I haven’t even watched even a single frame of Guru Shishyaru, and I want to watch it with the audience.”
Apart from Sharan, the film also stars 11 young kids who play the role of kho-kho players.
“The film is set in 1995, and it gave me an opportunity to relive those times. I saw innocence in those kids, and through the process of making the film, they taught me so much. The film brings sports and entertainment together in one frame and also brings out the divine relationship between a teacher and his students, which is the best part of Guru Shishyaru.”
‘BUSINESS CAN’T BE THE ONLY FACTOR TO JUDGE A FILM LIKE GURU SHISHYARU’
Creative Head is a post, which is rare in cinema, and director Tharun Kishore Sudhir feels proud to hold that post in a few films including Guru Shishyaru.
"To be honest, I think I was the first to create such a post in the Kannada industry when I started working with my brother Nanda (Nanda Kishore) in Rambo."
"The creative head is like a tuition teacher, who offers separate lessons and additional insights to what is taught in the classroom," says Tharun, adding, "Director is the one who takes the final call, and I just give my creative input.” As a director, Tharun feels that even he would benefit from having a creative head in his projects."
Apart from being the creative head, Tharun is also making his debut as a producer with Guru Shishyaru. He is co-producing this project under his Tharun Sudhir Kreatiivez banner in association with Sharan’s Laddu Cinemas.
“It is difficult to convince producers about some scripts. Guru Shishyaru was definitely one of those challenging scripts, and the merits of it couldn’t be just looked at from the business perspective. There is a lot of trial and error in this film. So I decided to take that risk and plunged into production,” he says.