National and State award winning film director Chetan Mundadi is back with his latest work. The film, as yet untitled, deals with autism and Chetan has started off with the first schedule of the shoot. “The film is about the relationship between a mother and her autistic daughter,” explains Chetan, who has roped in actors like Anup Kumar to play the lead, Jyothi Rai of the serial Jogula fame will don the role of the mother, with Dhanika Hegde as the child with autism.
The story and production is by Saraswathi Hosadurga and Kavita Santhosh. The man has done his own research and says “studies show 70 million children are affected by autism, yet not many know about the disorder. We don’t even know how to be around people affected by autism,” observes the director.
The script for this film was written by AP Arjun, with dialogues by Vinu Balanja and music by Harshavardhan, says Chetan, whose earlier work, the Tulu film Madipu, won him accolades.
Yet, it was not direction that he started on. Chetan began his career in the industry as an art director. “It was in the late 70s and early 80s that I started working for television and serials as an art director.”
Varamahalkashmi, Nalku tanti, Kutumba, Jogula are some of his notable works on the small screen. In cinema he started by assisting directors and has worked on films like Apthamithra, Chigurida Kanasu, Houseful.
“Still, direction had never crossed my mind till I worked for the film Houseful. I had to create a 67-foot tall statue of Charlie Chaplin when I was working as an independent art director, but I was not allowed to erect it, as people did said the legend was a Christian! At that time, this became national news and was not granted permission to erect it, even in Udupi. That troubled me as I believe there is no religion for an artiste — be it acting or painting — the skills, canvas or colours don’t scream out religion. That is when I decided to make Madipu ,” shares Chetan, who adds the film was about what binds people and relationships. “The story is about a boy who has two mothers — one biological and the other who adopts him. The plot focuses on their relationship with each other.”
His next film Pravesha is in the dubbing stage. “It is a current subject and deals with how the media plays a role in people’s lives.”
Chetan says that he was inspired to make this film as he is also a student of journalism. “When I was studying journalism, I learnt to be objective, to study the matter thoroughly and only then present it to people. But today, it is all about being the first to break some news. It is not the fault of the media alone; people also want to know everything as it is happening. Pravesha revolves around a village that had never ever thought about religion and caste until the media gets there,” explains Chetan.
Why are all his topics so serious? He responds, “I believe cinema can transform society. Even if 10 lives are changed after seeing my films, I will feel victorious. The worst part about living in today’s time is that everyone is out to prove they are good at everything, they want to be noticed. We have become so self-centred, we hardly notice the person sitting next to us, forget about interacting with them personally. In this process of being glued to technology, we are losing out on our relationships. I feel we have all become like machines living in a world of meetings and deadlines. That is why I make films that reveal the current state of affairs in the form of a story.”
Chetan, who has been in the industry for a little over two decades, says he grew up watching the films of Rajkumar and Amitabh Bachchan. “Those films had something to tell us; they touched our hearts and made us think. Today, we only watch films that entertain — once we reach home we don’t even remember the names of the actors or the plot of the film we’ve watched. It was not so in the past. I wish more meaningful cinema comes out and also hope more people will come forward as producers to make powerful films.”
He adds that he has a collection of commercial stories in his kitty. “Just because my first film was an award-winning realistic one, I get approached to make more such films. One day, I would also like to make a powerful commercial film.”
