Everything I did was with the aim of making films one day

Every path that Arjun Kumar S has taken over the years has been with the sole aim of films in mind. He began his career in 2010 in TV as an assistant

director

, and went on to work on several reality shows. Arjun then made corporate videos, “because I wanted to learn how the camera works and about framing. I even learnt how to edit the videos. All this was to eventually do films one day,” says Arjun.

When he began actively pursuing films and looking for a producer, even though they liked his scripts, Arjun didn’t have any work to show for his craftsmanship. “That is when I decided to make a short film — Panmandri Cross — which went viral; I even won a Best Director award for it. It then became easier to find a producer, after which I began working on

Sankashta Kara Ganapathi

,” he says.

When they first became friends seven years ago, Arjun and lead actor Likith Shetty had decided that they would make a film together one day. After discussing several subjects, they zeroed-in on a film about a man who doesn’t have control over his left hand. “At the time, we didn’t know about alien hand syndrome. We did the necessary research and even met people suffering from it. The challenge then was presenting the story as a complete entertainer, despite it being based on a serious subject. We also wanted to make it as realistic as possible. So, we chose to make the protagonist a cartoonist, because for a cartoonist, the use of his hands is very important. Also, the profession hasn’t been explored much in Kannada films,” says Arjun, of his film that is slated to release on July 27.