Kannada actor Padmaja Rao’s urge to use her time during the lockdown constructively has resulted in the 30-minute short film, Ondu Giftina Kathe . The film was released on YouTube on April 25 and will be aired on Kasturi TV. Padmaja conceptualised the film as well as wrote the screenplay and dialogues. Shot in three countries India, USA and Canada by 10 cameramen on iPhones, the film has 11 characters.
“I wanted to break the silence in me,” says Padmaja. “That was the whole point. I am used to back-to-back production schedules. Now in the silence of the lockdown, I wanted to offer people a change. I have always wanted to make a short film and once I decided to go ahead with Ondu Giftina Kathe, in three weeks things fell into place.”
Padmaja recently appeared in Varadanayaka with Sudeep, and in Prashanth Neil’s Ugram . Describing Ondu Giftina Kathe as a light-hearted story about love, Padmaja says, “It is a comedy of errors. I was interested in holding up a mirror to the lighter side of life.”
Portions of the film set in Canada and USA were shot and sent to Padmaja. “Uday Hubli edited the footage, while Praveen D Rao scored the music. Both Praveen and I took up playing the main roles, too,” she adds.
A fan of Kannada writer Parvatavani’s work, Padmaja holds Akka Pakkada Mane as a good example of a community narrative. Ondu Giftina Kathe tells the story of Anirudh who lives in the USA. He sends his father, Sharath Chandra, who lives in Bengaluru, a gift for his birthday which he does not get. When Sharath’s quarrelsome neighbours, the Janardhan couple, receive a gift by courier, all hell breaks loose. How Sharath handles the situation forms the rest of the story.
“Young working professionals including Sughosh Rao from Canada, Anirudh Mohan from San Francisco and Apoorva Gururaj from California were excited to be part of the film,” says Padmaja. They are not professional actors, though Anirudh is busy with theatre projects in the Bay Area.
As far as the budget goes, Padmaja says, “Since I was doing most of the production work and Praveen agreed to do the music, the expenses involved were only for editing. The rest of the crew including Sudha Belwadi, Sunethra, Ramesh Pandith, Girish Jathi, Tanuja Shanmugam and Sudheendra Kaushik, came together as friends for a cause.”
Padmaja, born in Bengaluru, did her schooling in Mumbai, and graduated from Seshadripuram College. She has worked for 20 years directing and producing fiction and non-fiction programmes. She has acted in 108 films till date, including Vaishali Kasaravalli’s Moodala Mane , Mungaaru Male and Gaalipata .
Ondu Giftina Kathe will be aired on Kasturi TV on May 1 at 8 pm.
