Director Prasanna cannot take a breather. Soon after his successful
Kalyana Samayal Saadham , he was roped in by Chinmaya Mission, a Hindu spiritual organisation, to make
The Quest, a biography of the organisation’s leader Chinmayananda Saraswati.
Prasanna compares Chinmayananda to his hero in literary fiction — Howard Roark of
The Fountainhead . “Both are uncompromising, and refuse to submit to populist notions.” For the better part of 2014, he was busy with the post-production work of
The Quest. The year closed with perhaps the most important announcement in his career: that
The Quest is ready for release, and that a Hindi remake of
Kalyana Samayal Saadham (KSS) will see him directing a big Bollywood actor in 2015.
“C. V. Kumar, after watching
ADVERTISEMENT
KSS the first time, saw Bollywood potential in it. The topic was universal, even though the culture needed some tweaking,” says Prasanna, whose Bollywood connection goes a long way — to his first job as a scriptwriter in Versova (which he calls “the Kodambakkam of Mumbai”). The director wryly comments many people had already called
ADVERTISEMENT
KSS a “Hindi film in Tamil”. “I suppose they were referring to the finish,” he adds. He understands that the Brahmin customs shown extensively in the original may not work in the remake. “I am at present adapting the script to Bollywood. We should start filming soon.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Meanwhile, an unusual release awaits
The Quest . “The idea is to release it in phases across the world and have people pick up passes from the local Chinmaya Mission centre,” explains Prasanna.
The film, after all, isn’t made for profit, and hence, the plan is to have the Mission purchase tickets and make them available for free pick-up on its website. There are also plans to screen it at all popular film festivals. “As it isn’t a commercial film, I have the freedom to innovate with respect to its release. I may even have it available on Netflix quickly.”
In doing this film after
ADVERTISEMENT
KSS , the director confesses to taking after a veteran like Priyadarshan who alternates between a commercial comedy like
ADVERTISEMENT
Khatta Meetha and a profound film like
ADVERTISEMENT
Kanchivaram . “If people who watch the film become interested in spirituality, and understand that it’s not the same as religion, that’s success enough.”
ADVERTISEMENT
This is a Premium article available exclusively to our subscribers. To read 250+ such premium articles every
month
You have exhausted your free article limit.
Please support quality journalism.
You have exhausted your free article limit.
Please support quality journalism.
The Hindu operates by its editorial values to provide you quality journalism.
You have read {{data.cm.views}} out of {{data.cm.maxViews}} free articles.