Letter 10

Mudhu Gundu and Puttu Kandha

This letter comes on time. Not because I am free and have no work, because a delay of 24hours and I wonder what milestones you guys achieve. I don’t want to mix things.

Technically this is that phase which all the uncles/auntie keeps talking about– tamma kaal mele taave ninthkobeku. Well literally you guys are doing that now and my heart skips a beat every time wondering what if you fall down. It will take some time to understand that falling is ok, and what really matters is how you manage to get up (too much for this age I know, but beleyuva pairu molakeyalli)

This one of Missy -- http://instagram.com/p/sJUL2Tnjqk/


I never worried about the delay in your first tooth, then itchy gums and teether/soothers hardly helped. You managed to sneak your fingers in, and I quit making an effort to stop that. But Grandpa makes sure your hands are washed often. Like Rekha Das who washes mukyamantri Chandrus feet in that movie, Shelly has the maid running behind him with bowl and water. Missy hardly cares about all this discipline nonsense.

Shelly baby you have two teeth in upper jaw sporting out and Missy beta you have two in lower jaw, all shaped up to pop up.

Missy loves to clap and Shelly Shake hands. Shelly is a listener and Missy a rebel.
http://instagram.com/p/sJUnv8HjrN/

The best scene of this month is both of you watching some random uncle eating prasada at Banshankri temple and shouting at him to give you the plate  ,  I'm sure he won't forget you both 

And finally this one for this month [there is a pic that your naani wanted to click as mandatory, :-) ]

Sandalwood Shettru mattu Samachara

Tuglak ge irlilla luck. Simple-aag ondh love story success simple aag irlilla. Ulidavaru kandante na yellaru tam tam version nalli kandaru, kelavaru yay andru kelavaru moogu muridaru. But adene aagli, nam Udupi Shettru Sandalwood ge lagge itirodantu nija, monne taane Switzerland inda Bhatru sets nalli shooting mugskondu banda Rakshit Shetty, ondu bindaas interview kotru.

K: Sandalwood says instead of “Ulidavara Kandanthe” you should have named it “Shettru Kandanthe”, nimma abhipraaya?

Hero: Ha ha. Who says that? Well I never planned it that way. In fact when I realized that there were too many Shetty's on board, I consciously tried not to take anymore, but again wouldn't that be wrong? Rishab was there with me since my Tuglak days. He was the only one who stood by me when Tuglak failed. We have been best friends ever since. So he was already on board even before I penned Ulidavaru Kandante. He helped me with Kunda Kannada while translating the English script to Kannada and hence he was a part of the Direction team as well. 

Yajna and Sheetal were not the first ones I reached out to for their respective roles. I had approached many other artists for those roles but it dint workout for multiple reasons. During our Pre Production in Udupi, while we were desperately searching for both the female leads, a local channel played a pirated copy of Yeddelu Manjunatha and then it struck us. It couldn't have been better we thought and tried contacting Yajna who was more than happy to play Kishore Sir's love interest and hence we pulled her in. But we couldn't find anyone who could play Regina until we actually started shooting. I had planned to shoot Regina's portion in the end. I was looking for someone who fits in to the character and could also speak Kannada perfectly because we were shooting with Sync Sound. 

One day after shoot, when we reached our apartment, we happened to switch on the TV and there she was, reading her daily bulletin on TV9. That was the first time I saw Sheetal and I din't even know she was a Shetty. When I called Suni, he told me that she was a Shetty as well. You see it was fate. Suni approached her the next day along with the script and she came on board as well. Rest of the star cast went through audition before getting selected, including our own Democracy, Suhan Shetty :-P 

K: If SOLS wouldn’t have been a hit, would you still go ahead and make “Ulidavaru Kandanthe”, if yes how and if no why?

Hero: I had written Ulidavaru Kandante even before I got an offer for SOLS. I was in search of a producer when Suni approached me for SOLS and it was a script which I couldn't say no to. So I thought Ulidavaru Kandante can wait for a while. Success of SOLS gave me an opportunity to make Ulidavaru Kandante at the right time with the right budget. If SOLS had failed at the box office, then may be my search for a producer would have continued unless I came across another script which excited me as an actor. If not, I would have followed Pawan's path of crowdsourcing funds  to make Ulidavaru Kandante within a smaller budget. I had done that earlier for two of my short films. I knew actors and Technicians who would work for free. I knew studios who would back me up too like they did for one of my short film. I knew a lot of them who believed in me. So I wanted money only for the production which I would collect from people. But then the movie would definitely not look like the way it looks now. 

K: Techie, Actor, Director, Audience – arrange in ascending order of your preferred roles in life

Hero: Actor, Director, Audience, Techie.

K:  “Script different ide”, “I play a different character”, “The role is close to my heart” bittu how do you choose your movies? Or do they just happen? 

Hero: Firstly I should like the script and the character I play. Then the Director. Then the Production and then the team as in the Music Director, Cinematographer and other technitions. If these things are in place, I am game. I think it is as simple as that. I choose the best among what comes to me.

K: Next Directorial scripts ready ide anta gothaitu? At least the concept? Ondu line nalli jhalak please?

Hero: Its gonna be a pre independence fictional story surrounded by real incidents from history set in R. K. Narayan's fictional village Malgudi. Its gonna be about the thugs. Its gonna be shoot shoot bang bang. I call it 'Thugs of Malgudi' :-)

Answers yella Vastu-Prakaara ide, nimge ishta aagidre good else shoot madbekagute!!!

Bahuparak

If your first movie is a hit, people just expect in extremes from the director. The baseline of excellence is already set; you have to be in par with the first one, if not more. This is exactly what was on shoulders of Suni, when he announced Bahuparaak.

I often wondered, how a production house can make two movies simultaneously, and this part has done damage to both the flicks. For UK, the damage was in form of publicity, and for Bahuparaak in terms of Budget.

Yenappa bari negative heltidaale ankobedi, let me tell you what I expected and what I got; This is not a movie for entertainment purpose, it’s an vimarshathmaka movie. That gets you thinking about the kind of life each one of us is living, about birth life and death and everything that happens as part of it.

Manas, Mani and Mouni, three stages of Kitty’s life in the movie conveying each phase has its own merits and demerits, the colors used when Manas in on screen is vibrant, when Mani is on screen the aspects are violent (actually not so) and Mouni is a revolutionary (this the best aspect of the movie). The moment these characters were introduced it was easy guessing that they are same people and the events are linked.

For me Kitty as Manas for very artificial, Kitty has over done his part and actress has nothing much to offer in the role at all. She has done justice to whatever small leverage existed. Mani part was fine, but stretched beyond compare; this was the dragging part for me. Then I realized that the drag was not the story but the music, BJ Bharath was not able to hold me or the audience hooked to seats with background score.

The most positive part of the movie and that makes you agree Kitty is indeed hero material is Mouni. The lingo, the cinematography, the locations and the lady who plays his wife are uber awesome. I was totally mesmerized whenever Mouni was on screen, sheer brilliance this part but unfortunately the bits are too low.

The audiences for this movie were same as from the SOLS, that is the unlucky part for Suni. This age group that falls under Manas category will not understand Mani or the Mouni part, they need colors and enthusiasm and fun and all that jazz. They also want foot tapping or eye closing type of music. And the music part from Mouni part was the only “yay” for me, baaki dull. Manohar Joshi has done excellent job, its visible in all the frames.

Dear Suni, it takes a lot of guts to make a swamake, agreed and as you say “prayogakke saavuntu prayatnakalla”, but nan request “marali prayogava prayatna maadi because sotirodu kathe, movie alla and most importantly neevalla”.

Letter Nine

So babies, how does it feel not to have hair on your head? Shelly, I am sure you would be all “say whattt?” Missy you must be missing them.  You were the one who reacted to “look who is in the mirror” question. Loved your initial “WTH” look, then trying things to confirm it’s you and finally, giggling and accepting who you are. Stay the same love, tomorrow you might be fat, or lose hair, or even get tanned, but then care a damn of people and their opinions. Until these changes are not affecting your health, chuck them!!!

Shelly, what a fun loving child you have turned to be since last month. One interesting event that happened and shocked us was how you imitated Missy and her coughing. I didn’t realize for a long time and wondered why the boy is giggling so much. Too bad we couldn’t capture that moment; nevertheless this one is for keeps - http://instagram.com/p/quGWs-njma/

And what is with your kitchen obsession boy? We leave you by yourself at any part of the house and you have to go to kitchen only? One thindi potha you are, but the ways you enjoy eating, so adorable. Relish what you eat, don’t just eat (appa is a better cook than me :P ) Kapish?

Missy, mera brave baccha, remember those initial months when I had so much negativity about you not being the poser. I was so wrong beta, so so wrong. The day before your head shaving, we got a photographer home, coz we couldn’t handle so much cuteness to take pics. And phew, you posed like a pro and didn’t stop. You let me change costumes five times, yet did not throw any tantrum. You actually got the photographer tired. This is good news. Anna knows to take selfies, you know to pose and appa, is trained in taking photos; such a happy family this :D

Also you proved that “Henmakkale strong guru”, during the mudi. Appana bevaru ildoitu magale. You kicked the barber, that he took his initial words back that holding leg is not necessary.

Finally the most important event, everyone wanted me to dress you as Radha along with Krishna costume for Shelly, but I said no. Who says girls cannot be Krishna? I am sure the pic tell a different story. And both of you, crawling around, enough of being on knees, cannot wait for you to stand on your legs. Run around and tire me, amma loves you both.