Like every good digital native, 38-year-old director Jayanth Seege has turned to social media for his next film.
The untitled political thriller needs a star like Shah Rukh Khan. Knowing that King Khan will have a long queue of hopeful directors, Jayanth figured if he put up pictures of himself outside the superstar’s house, with a placard tagged to SRK’s social media, it might catch his attention.
Meanwhile, Jayanth’s film, 96 is ready for release. “ 96 has Sheethal Shetty playing herself in the lead. The psychological thriller is along the lines of AK vs AK, where reality and fiction merge . The story happens over one night when Sheethal is attacked by two men who break into her house.”
Learning experience
Jayanth started his career working as an assistant director in Rakshit Shetty’s Ulidavaru Khandante, which had Sheethal playing a journalist. “Working with that team was a brilliant learning experience. I did not doubt my filmmaking skills, but was not sure about my people skills. Ulidavaru... gave me ample scope to learn the tricks of the trade.”
96 features Sidhaartha Maadhyamika, Pramod Shetty and Rakesh. “It was screened at BIFFES 2020 and then COVID-19 happened. Now, we are looking at an OTT release. The challenge is small-budget films such as ours do not hold the credibility when it comes to such platforms. That puts us back to square one, and we will try a theatrical release too,” he says.
Jayanth is currently working on an untitled Kannada film, being shot on an iPhone. “A romantic thriller, the film is set during the lockdown and has Rakesh in the lead role.”
He has written the story and screenplay for both his films and says, “I am self-taught. I am not a great writer, but can put what I want to narrate on paper. That has been my strength. And if I don’t know something, I make it a point to learn that. For instance, for the film, we want to use a lot of VFX. So, I worked with a team that excels in that and now my friend and I have our own VFX company and even did VFX for Arishadvarga .”
