BANGALORE: Madime, a Tulu film directed by Vijayakumar Kodialbail of Oriyardori Asal fame is all set to hit theatres this October. This is believed to be the most expensive Tulu film ever made and is made on a large scale with lavish sets and outdoor locations across Karnataka. While the rest of the Southern film industry is busy making remakes in different languages, Vijaykumar sticks to his Tulu roots and is in fact adapting his own plays into films. He says, "I have done 20 plays over the last 25 years and since they were well received, I decided to adapt them for the silver screen. Madime has been staged as a play 500 times and its popularity made me decide to turn it into a film."
According to the director, there is a growing demand for Tulu films, which was not the case before. "Especially, in Mangalore, and its surrounding areas, people are more interested in Tulu films than those in other languages and that has encouraged us to do more films in the language," says Vijay.
Initially, Madime will be released in Mangalore and a few theatres in Mumbai and then it will be shown in theatres in Bangalore. He adds, "Since Tulu speaking people are spread across Bangalore city, our only option is to release it in multiplexes. We have also been in talks with a producer who is keen to remake Madime in Kannada."
The director claims that it was Oriyardori, which ran for 25 weeks gave a boost to the Tulu film industry and today, more and more directors are coming forward to make films in the language. "Intially films were made in Tulu, once every few years. Today, the Tulu industry has registered 40 titles at the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce and right now eight films are in production," he says.
The director also mentions that there is difficulty in converting a play into a feature film but since we have already done it before, we have the experience now," he explains. Vijaykumar has recast the leading pair -- Likith Shetty and Ramya Barna from Oriyardori Asal in Madime too. "Likith knows the language well, as he is from Udupi. We don't have a popular hero in Tulu cinema and since Likith's last film did well, we roped him in again for this film as well," he says. Since it is necessary for the actors to know the language for dubbing purposes, the choices are limited for the director. Thus actress Ramya was also repeated because there are few Tulu speaking actresses working in the local industry. "Although big names like Aishwarya Rai or Deepika Padukone say they are from this region, their contribution to their regional language is negligible as their work is in Bollywood," says Vijay.
Madime is a tale that talks about dowry. "It aims to show what parents go through when their daughters get married and sends across a strong message," concludes the director.