Jayateertha’s fourth film, Beautiful Manasugalu , is dedicated to women. The film, which is being released on January 20, stars Ninasam Satish, Shruthi Hariharan, Achyut Kumar and Tabla Nani.
"Molestation occurs on a daily basis in India,” says Jayateertha. “It is one of the most frequent crimes and the conviction rates remain low. Most cases of molestation in public places go unreported. It happens everywhere — on the streets, in buses, in trains, metros, schools, colleges, universities, work places, shops and homes. Karnataka and Bengaluru are no exception. According to police sources, of the 756 cases of sexual harassment, as many as 559 are still under investigation. I was disturbed by this statistic and built a story around an incident that happened on February 12, 2013 in Mangaluru.”
Jayateertha feels women who are sexual harassed are victimised twice — once by the perpetrator and then by media and the society. The theatre and film director takes up social causes with his latest play Medical Mafia looking at the commercialisation of healthcare.
His debut feature film, Olave Mandara , delved into the purity of love and the human spirit while his second film, Tony, dealt with greed. "Tony was a classic love story with a social issue. After experimenting with comedy in Bullet Basya, I am back with my passion for social issues.”
Jayateertha did a lot of research for Beautiful Manasugalu . He met the victim of the 2013 incident and realised after talking to her that, what followed after was equally if not more painful. “Visiting police stations and facing society became a nightmare for her. The story of Beautiful Manasugalu took shape as I listened to her.”
Praising Shruthi Hariharan who plays the protagonist, Nandini, Jayateertha says, "Shruthi had to imagine the trauma Nandini would have gone through. I got what I expected from Shruti.”
Jayateertha insists the film is not grim. “I packaged the film with commercial ingredients including power-packed dialogues, lyrical songs and comedy so that the audience can smile even as they get the message.”
With music by B.J. Bharat of Simple AgiOnd Love Story , Jayateertha clarifies, “The film is not only about what happened to the victim or the injustice meted out to her. It is also about how the incident was projected in the media and viewed by the society.”
Future plans include a thriller, Vanilla. Jayateertha is introducing new faces —Avinash, who is from theatre and Swathi Konde. "The film is again based on a true story, about a global mafia that exploits the environment.
