Arishadvarga’, will be the second Kannada film after ‘Lucia’ to be premiered at the Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival on June 23 and 26. There will be one show each in London and Birmingham.
Directed by Arvind Kamath, ‘Arishadvarga’, is a character-driven mystery thriller about an aspiring actor doubling up as a gigolo. It is a tale of lust, anger, love, greed, power, jealousy, mistaken identity and individual deficiencies.
In an interview with Metrolife, lead actor Avinash talks about his character and why he thinks the film is a must watch.
What made you accept the project?
The film is a bold attempt at unravelling a murder mystery. This comes neatly wrapped in complexities of relationships. I really liked the way director Arvind Kamath has knit the
characters together to tell a story that is completely real and relatable. There’s something for everybody to take home after watching this film.
What’s your character?
I play a film producer who is married to a person much younger to him. The whole story revolves around that relationship and what happens when it turns sour. The reason for the strained relationship are manifold and involves a lot of people. The result is a gruesome murder. The story is about the murder and how it is solved.
You mentioned that it is a complex film. What do you mean by that?
It is complex because my character portrays the complexities of a man who is confused whether to give his wife the freedom to do what she wants to do or do what everybody else does (freedom with strings attached). Thanks to the director’s insistence, we did some real-time acting. It is unlike a commercial movie and I must say that the director had tremendous patience to wait till he got what he wanted.
Did you dub for the film?
They did sync sound for most of the film. There is no dubbing and direct recording. I had earlier done it for a Hollywood movie with Ashok Amritraj when I was very young. Here, for this film, it was tough because we had to do multiple takes till we got it right. Even if the wind blew, a dog barked or an aircraft flew past us, we had to do a retake. The performances of each of the actors are something to watch out for.
Are you happy with the outcome of the film?
I am very satisfied with what I have done. I am always very critical about my performances. I always feel that I could have done better. But this character has left me happy. Anju Alva Nayak, an actor from the English theatre, plays the role of my wife in the film. We struck good chemistry and I had to change my mental makeup to adjust to the role. I learnt a lot in the process of making this film.
It’s a human drama in the garb of a murder mystery, says director Arvind
Director Arvind Kamath says that ‘Arishadvarga’, is a mainstream film, that has all the ingredients to make it an entertaining watch but is not the typical commercial masala mainstream. “It has songs but it doesn’t have songs in dance. The film doesn’t break into a song unnecessarily. The songs kind of aid the narrative. There are six in the film (two credit songs and four narrative). It has verbal fights and not the over the top fights sequences. There are no cars flying up in the air. We have kept it as real as possible,” Arvind tells Metrolife.
Arvind explains that the film is a human drama in the garb of a murder mystery.
“The murder mystery holds your attention for a longer duration. But that’s not all, its about relationships and grey layers between black and white. It is about human beings and all the characters and situations are totally relatable,” he adds.