'Kannada audience tricky, industry needs to rethink how it does business'

Bengaluru, Jul 23 (PTI) Filmmakers Roopa Rao and Sahadev Kelvadi are aware that the Kannada audience is possibly the trickiest in the south to cater to.

"For instance, I can say in Tamil Nadu, people are drawn to raw movies. In Malayalam, rooted movies work. We remake them all here – but sometimes, even the classics, like the Telugu film ‘Swathi Muthyam’ do not work. So, we do not know what the Kannada audience really wants," says Rao.

Not that this has stopped the duo from doing films that they want to do – films layered with the complexities of everyday life, showing a mirror to society – and dare to bring them to theatres.

Rao’s 2019 debut film ‘Gantumoote’ (The Baggage), for instance, explored adolescence and sexuality from the rarely seen perspective of a girl. Incidentally, it was produced by Kelvadi, who was also its cinematographer.

Although termed a ‘taboo’ subject by many in the industry and rejected initially, Rao and Kelvadi persevered to get the film to the theatres, where it unexpectedly won hearts, transcending languages and borders.

"I remember thinking that even if 2,000 people watched the film, it would be great. But the reception the film got was mind blowing. First week, we released the film in about 38 to 40 screens. Second week it went down to two screens. But in the third week, it reached 70 screens because the word spread and people wanted to watch it," says Rao.

Perhaps it is the confidence that stemmed out of their ‘Gantumoote’ experience that gave the duo the wherewithal to up their game in their next film, ‘Kenda’ (The Ember) – this time directed by Kelvadi and produced by Rao.

Kelvadi agrees that the way the audience accepted ‘Gantumoote’ gives him hope for ‘Kenda’ too.

"I think they are looking for stories that are not just spectacles or plot based, but are driven by characters," adds Kelvadi.

Slated for a July 26 India-wide release, ‘Kenda’ is everything that a typical Kannada film is not.

Set in a pace that does not hurry to keep up with the growing impatience of the society, the film leisurely peels off layers of masculinity, power and politics. It feeds off the intensity of the characters, instead of plot pushing twists and turns. Even the background score refuses to play second fiddle to trending tunes. Just like the film, it asserts itself by stepping away from the norm.

But despite the validation that stemmed from ‘Gantumoote’, Rao talks about how she at times had to push Kelvadi to go all the way, whenever he held back.

"As storytellers, we often wonder if we should give what the audience wants without knowing what it is, or should we tell a story that touches us, hoping it touches them too," says Rao.

For Kelvadi, going all the way meant sneaking in a transvestite character spouting couplets, in scenes that could be more at home in classic noir films than a Kannada film. It meant refusing to glorify violence, in a film that wraps itself around violence.

It also meant giving an ambivalent tinge to characters, including that of the leading man, in a society that worships ‘hero’.

Kelvadi says he has been living with the story in his head since 2011.

"When I was growing up, in the 1990s and 2000s, we often heard terms like political turmoil or social unrest. All it meant to me then was that there would possibly be a holiday declared in the school.

"Only later, I was curious to know what it meant to people who went about their daily lives, caught in this violence, as well as the foot soldiers, the pawns of the politicians, who took part in them. After years of research, I ended up writing the absurdist political satire that ‘Kenda’ turned out to be,” says Kelvadi.

With the film doing well in the festival circuit – in April, it won the Best Debut Director at the 14th Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival – Kelvadi says he has already received the validation he needs as a filmmaker.

But releasing the film in theatres is a different ball game, say the makers.

Rao says for films like theirs to have a breathing space, it is essential the industry changes how it does business.

In the last 10 to 15 years, she points out, things have changed drastically when it comes to how people consume films.

"But exhibition space hasn’t really evolved. Earlier, single screens with 1,200 seaters worked because that many people went," says Rao.

Even multiplexes with 200 to 250 seats are falling short of people these days, she adds.

"It is not viable for a 250-seater to have only 60-70 people. So, they take out films that are not doing well the first week,"says Rao.

Pointing to what happened in the case of ‘Gantumoote’, Rao says some films take time to catch up. "By the time word spreads that the film is good, it is no longer showing in the theatre." If filmmakers were to ask for a minimum guarantee of two to three weeks from exhibitors, it must be economically viable for them too, says Rao, adding that this is possible only if there are 100-to-70-seater screens.

"If this can happen in the next two to three years, in the next decade we will really have some great films in Kannada. By not giving these films space in theatres you are kind of cheating generations from this experience," says Rao. PTI JR KH