After working for two decades as an actor, Vinaya Prasad (Prakash) took to directing her first film Lakshmi Narayanara Prapanchane Bere. The actress, who started off her acting career on television, went on to work with stalwarts of the Kannada film industry, besides acting in Tamil and Malayalam films. She has shared screen space with actors Anant Nag, Devraj, Vishnuvardhan, Ravichandran, Shivrajkumar, besides Rajinikanth, Mohanlal and Akkineni Nagarjuna. Vinaya also won the State Best Actress Award for her performance in Aathanka and Bannada Hejje.
The actress, with large, dancing eyes, narrates the story behind her directorial debut—Lakshmi Narayanara Prapanchane Bere, which was produced by her production house—Vinaya Prasad Production House, launched in association with her husband Jyoti Prakash Atre:
For 20 years, I nurtured a dream of directing a film. Just as every job holder aspires to get a promotion, I aspired to be a director. As an actress I had observed every aspect of film making keenly.
The next step was to look for a producer. But, when a different producer joins hands with you, he may have his own ideas about executing a film. So our ideas may not always work. So we —I and my husband — decided to launch our own production house. He is from an advertising and marketing background and works in Bengaluru and Mumbai. Our major timepass is to discuss stories. He narrates and I listen. I felt one story would work — that of Lakshmi Narayanara Prapanchane Bere .
As makers, we had limited budget and had to make everything work within that. This also meant limited characters on screen, but I believe the message of the film was unlimited.
Then the making of the film commenced. The story is about a middle-class couple. The wife approaches a psychiatrist, who runs a “ buddhi repair garage ” (brain repair garage) to get her husband treated. The story takes many comic twists and turns with loads of hilarious encounters between the characters. It was also a family affair as my daughter Prathama Prasad also acted and Atre played the role of the psychiatrist.
Every moment is memorable for me. It took us two to three months to zero in and select our artistes and locations. The pre-production work went on in a systematic manner. Each day was new. Though we faced many hurdles — monetarily or emotionally, had creative loopholes, every moment was fascinating as we worked with different actors, moods and ended up bonding with new people.
Till the film was in the making, we did not face any hurdle from nature. But, on the date of the release, the downpour in Bengaluru was crazy. It started pouring from October 5, which was day of the premiere and poured continuously for 12 days! The target audience, which was 50 plus, preferred to stay indoors than brave the rains. The theatres too did not have the patience to run the film for a longer time. That pinched me a little as the message of the film was aimed at every woman struggling to deal with the situation of her home going empty after her children get married and leave. Yet, the experience did not leave me bitter as we invested wisely in it. It was a simple investment which suited our pockets. But still they are lovely days in my opinion. One should learn to fall and rise gracefully.
My experience as the director was excellent, almost magical. It made me feel like a pilot. If you sit in an aircraft as a passenger, your experience is different. You are unaware of the jerks, clouds passing or a turmoil. You won’t be bothered if you hear the pilot’s reassuring voice. But, if you are in the pilot’s seat, the whole game plan changes. You can see everything —from the clouds to power of a turbulence etc. No matter what goes on in that cockpit, the pilot has to manoeuvre the plane and take us safely to our destination. That is what I felt when I sat in the director’s chair.
It was fun handling tough situations with subtlety. I had to pay attention to the camera angles, lights, costumes and the works. Of course, I had a wonderful technical team, especially my husband. He wrote the story and every scene out for me in such a way that every frame was scheduled and timed. He is complete cinema in himself.
The director’s chair was so attractive, I wanted to be glued to it for some more time. Maybe in my next venture. I will not give up. Years of experience has taught me to handle artistes, technical team and situations. As we both love cinema, we will definitely get involved in more such projects.
As told to Shilpa Sebastian R
This column chronicles a filmmaker’s first efforts
