Daredevil Musthafa, completely crowdfunded, set for release

A short story by the renowned writer Poornachandra Tejaswi is now a full-fledged college drama

Admirers of K P Poornachandra Tejaswi’s writing are crowd-funding a film based on his short story ‘Daredevil Musthafa’. Engineer-turned-director Shashank Soghal is debuting with the eponymous film.

Son of Rashtrakavi Kuvempu (Dr K V Puttappa), Tejaswi is among the most prominent modern writers. His 30 stories, five novels and articles on science, environment and current affairs are widely read. Shashank first heard an audio version of the story, in a series called ‘Keli Katheya’. “I visualised the story as a college entertainer as I was hearing it,” he says.

In his book ‘Hosa Vicharagalu’ (New Thoughts), Tejaswi asks filmmakers to make films that can reach the masses, says Shashank. “He had said song, dance and other elements can be added to the script in order to attract common people,” he says, explaining how he approached the film. As a result, a story of just six pages got an extensive screenplay, with the addition of new characters.

Finding funders

Many producers Shashank approached did not understand the story; some wanted it made on a low budget. “The canvas of the film is huge so we could not compromise on the budget. So I appealed for crowd-funding on Facebook,” says Shashank.

About 80% of the crowd-funders came forward because of Tejaswi, the rest had watched Shashank’s short films. “I got full funding through crowd-funding,” says Shashank.

Veer Santhosh, one of the crowd-funders, says, “I was inspired because Tejaswi is one of the writers I adore.”

An all-new cast

Most of the cast and crew are new. Shishir Baikady (24), who plays Musthafa, is from a theatre background. He began with Natana Rangashale in Mysuru and has acted in many plays, including ‘Alibaba and 40 Kallaru’, and a serial called ‘Mahakali’.

He had to reduce weight to look like an 18-year-old. “The culture of Musthafa is different from my own. So I went to Mandi Mohalla in Mysuru to just observe people. I got the dialogues recorded by a Muslim friend,” Shishir says, explaining how he had to learn namaz, left-hand bowling and magic tricks in order to become Tejaswi’s Musthafa.

Fitting into the role was a bigger challenge for Aditya Ashree (29), an actor with a theatre background who plays Ramanuja Iyengari. “I reduced 16 kg and had to maintain my looks throughout two lockdowns, so I was on a diet for 564 days,” he says.

He says he read all of Tejaswi’s books to find more references to Ramanuja Iyengari, and finally found it in Jugari Cross.

“He was a brilliant person who was murdered, according to Tejaswi,” he says.

For the youth

The film was shot mostly in Hardwicke College in Mysuru, housed in a British-era building where Kuvempu studied. Parts of the movie were also shot in Melkote and Madikeri.

‘Daredevil Musthafa’ is the fifth film based on Tejaswi’s stories. “People think youngsters do not watch novel-based films which are considered serious. To break this prejudice, we launched rap songs and mass promos,” Shashank says.

Headbush producer and actor K A Dhananjaya, who was also Shashank’s college senior, came forward to champion the movie after watching it. KRG Studios is the distributor.

“This is a movie that gives an entry into Tejaswi’s world, and youngsters should watch it,” says Shashank.