AT Mid day: Gurukiran and Raghava Loki  Pics\vinod kumar t and Omprakash

Music matters

Satya In Love marks music director Gurukiran’s 50th film in the Kannada film industry. “I enjoy working with debutantes, because they have the enthusiasm to prove themselves, and make a difference with their work. Senior directors and producers feel it is my duty to deliver music for their films in the least time possible. Unfortunately, they do not realise that it is important to make sure the film has great music,” says Gurukiran.

The tracks of Satya In Love have already been topping the charts. “I am looking forward to the release. I am sure the film will do as well as its music,” he states.

Title tracking

When you say Satya In Love, the first thing that strikes you about the film is that this could probably be a film about the underworld. “The title has been chosen to mislead people. Satya has underworld connotations, thanks to previous films. Also, Shivarajkumar’s film Om had him playing the role of Satya.

However, Satya In Love has nothing to do with rowdyism. In fact, you could call it a makeover of sorts for Shivarajkumar,” says the film’s director Raghava Loki.

Storywise

Director Loki also happens to be the story writer of the film. “I took four years to write this story. A part of the story is self inspired, but I believe that the way a story is narrated is what makes a film different. The packaging is what took over four years. I had written the story with specific people in mind. I wanted Shivarajkumar, and I wanted Genelia playing the roles they have played. I waited long enough for appropriate dates for everyone to be on board. Even though it has taken time, when I look back I am amazed at how everything fell into place,” says Loki. 

The look

Initial promos of the film may have led you to believe that Shivarajkumar could be playing the role of a rockstar what with the all-white rockstar look and poses with the mikes. The director says that the initial pictures were taken only to decide a final look. “We had three wigs that were designed for Shivarajkumar’s role in the film. We had photo shoots with all three. Somehow, some of the pictures were leaked to the media and that’s how people assumed that he was playing a rockstar. He is, in fact playing the role of a young IT professional in Bangalore. The wig that we have used for him is just an effort to make him look different and young.”

The look has received a lot of flak as well, but music director Gurukiran says, “Since it is different, people are bound to talk about it. Whether it is negative or positive is secondary.”

Having Genelia

Whatte style: Shivarajkumar and Genelia D’Souza

Another highlight of the film Satya In Love is the film’s leading lady Genelia. The director, of course, is all praise for the actress. “Genelia is originally from Mangalore. So having her in a Kannada film for the first time is like an honour for us. She is also great to work with. Even though she is not familiar with the language, she did not have any kind of prompting while shooting. She always came prepared,” says Loki.

Also working to the producer’s advantage is the fact that Genelia is a popular actress in the southern film industry. “We are going to be releasing the film in the interiors of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, simultaneously. We keep complaining that our market is small, but if we don’t make the effort to release a film in other states, it is difficult to come to a conclusion that nobody is watching Kannada films,” he adds.

Gurukiran however jokes about the fact that Loki never invited him over to the sets when Genelia was around. “I still have not met her,” he says.

On the sets

Working with stars like Shivarajkumar and Genelia was bound to be a tough task for debutantes — director Loki and producer Ramesh. Of course both are known to be extremely accommodating, but it was the rain that seemed to play spoilsport for this film. “We postponed the shooting for the song Kole Basava around six times because of the rain. At another time, we were to drive to Karnoor (around 350 km away from Bangalore). It rained through out that journey. Finally, when we got to our destination we had just two days. Luckily for us, it stopped raining for just a day-and-a-half and we had no choice but to finish shooting that entire scene within that time frame as our lead star had other commitments. As soon as we finished our shoot, it started raining again,” recalls Loki.

Most challenging

The climax of the film, that was shot first, proved to be the toughest part of the film. “We shot on the top of the Chintamani Hill located on the outskirts of Karnataka. It is not easy to reach the top. We had to drive up to a certain distance, after which everybody had to walk for a kilometre upwards. Again on top, the art director had spent days to create a set —which was a temple on top of the hill. We took 12 days to shoot the entire climax,” says Loki. According to the director, a perfectionist in the form of Vietnamese stunt director Peter Heines made all that effort worthwhile.