‘Abhinetri’ to finally hit screens today

Curious movie-goers will finally get answers to all their questions with Friday’s release of Abhinetri , considered one of the most controversial Kannada films in recent years.

Producer Pooja Gandhi, who also plays the lead role, is probably heaving a sigh of relief as the movie is hitting screens after a struggle of more than a year.

The film, which has the tagline ‘The Tragedy of a Legend’, is centred around the life of a yesteryear actor.

Recounting the challenges of making the film, Ms. Gandhi told

The Hindu that “it was like winning a battle”.

She admitted that the film was “inspired by” the life of ‘Minugu Taare’ Kalpana, a big Kannada star of the 70s.

“In fact, it is the most challenging role in my career as an actress,” she said.

Though the film was completed in October with a U/A certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification in November, the release was delayed because of the non-availability of theatres, said Satish Pradhan, director of Abhinetri . The tagline and the eight-page colour brochure released at the film launch in August 2013 dropped enough hints that Abhinetri was about Kalpana. Repeated clarifications by Ms. Gandhi and Mr. Pradhan did nothing to convince people otherwise.

There were allegations that veteran director Puttanna Kanagal had been portrayed in a poor light in the film.

Then there were charges of copyright violation as writer Bhagya Krishnamurthy approached the court claiming that Abhinetri was based on her work.

Pooja Gandhi is all set to project her film at a pan-India level by dubbing the film in eight languages — Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Hindi, Punjabi and Malayalam — “as the film represents the story of every female lead of the film industry”.

The film also stars Makarand Paranjape, Atul Kulkarni, Ravi Shankar, Ramya Barna, Srinagar Kitty and Neetu.