Living Legend With Girish Kasaravalli at NSD

Renowned

Kannada

director Girish Kasaravalli graced the ‘Living Legend’ series held at

Sammukh

, NSD Campus recently, where he spoke to

Tripurari Sharma

. A stalwart of the Kannada film industry, Girish Kasaravalli is one of the pioneers of parallel

cinema

.
Talking about his inspiration of making films, Shri Kasaravalli said, “In my career spanning for 4 decades, I have made most of the films on Kannada literary works. I often say that I make imperfect films, not in terms of camera angles or script but in terms of perspective. As Indians, we tend to draw inspiration from Hollywood for making films. I believe that I should work according to my audience. I draw inspiration from my backyard, my surroundings. Now, this may be imperfect as per Hollywood standards but perfect as per my audience.”

Girish Kasaravalli with Tripurari Sharma

All of his films are rooted in local culture and yet have travelled beyond boundaries and have been hugely appreciated as “world cinema”. A down-to-earth approach to filmmaking has earned him the reputation of creating a unique language of cinema, which excels in “culturing realism”. Talking about his technique of script writing and direction, Kasaravalli said, “The use of colours is very important in a scene. Colours set the right atmosphere for the scene. While writing a script, the images should be very clear in my mind. If I can’t imagine my scenes, then I cannot write the script. For me, getting the right kind of image is very crucial. I believe every scene should have details.”
Besides being famous for their simplicity and realism, his films are known for their insightful analysis of social-political undercurrents in the multi-textured and equally complex social fabric of India. “When I write a script, I consider it as a communicator of emotions. It should convey the emotions of the character. It is important to bring social, economic and political aspects to the narrative and then philosophical aspect, which is universal. I try to understand and bring out the character’s philosophy and not impose my ideologies in it. Let the characters come out with all their colours. I have to give autonomy to the character,” said Kasaravalli.