North Karnataka appears to be a popular destination for film shoots. Earlier, directors found it hard to shoot at the terrain, given the weather conditions, but now they are up for it.
“The idea for our film is to capture the place and emotion. As in, what we have seen is what we have captured on screen,” states Karthik Maralabhavi, a scriptwriter, who is making his directorial debut with the film Thugs in Ramaghada.
The film has actor Ashwin Hassan ( Avane Sriman Narayana fame) and Chandan Raj in the lead, while Mahalakshmi makes her debut here. Produced by Keerthi Raj and Jai Kumar and presented under the Bharat Talkies, the film has cinematography by Manu Dasappa and music by Suraj.
“It is a crime story and the entire film is shot in Surpura and Hunasi. It is truly a ‘native’ film, as in, it captures the culture and mood of the place.”
Thugs in Ramaghada is written by Karthik. “It is a fictional piece. But I have based it on the bed time stories that I heard from my grandfather when I was a child,” says the engineer, who gave up on his profession as a lecturer for films.
“The best part about making a film,” he says, “is the time when you get down to script writing. You can let your imagination go wild, creating situations and characters. In fact, I always sit with my DOP (Manu) when writing a script, simply because he is a good friend and we immediately discuss as to what can be executed from the text to the screen and what cannot. We both even started the journey in cinema together.”
“During the shoot the biggest challenge we faced was reaching the location itself. As we had chosen terrains brimming with hills and mountains, vehicles could not reach those places. So we had to reach the location by foot, carrying the camera, food, make up and the paraphernalia. The icing on the cake, ironically, was the summer heat.”
The team is on a short break now due to the rapid rise in Covid cases. “But, once we complete the film, we plan to send it across festivals.”
