Five Years of GBSM: Five interesting facts about the film and its making

As Hemanth M. Rao's 'Godhi Banna, Sadharana Mykattu' clocks five years of its release, memories of its first experience come gushing for many. A maiden tryst for many on the project, the film proved to a cathartic exercise which led to the team repeating their experiments and widening the talent pool of the Kannada Film Industry. So, congratulating the makers on their sincerity and success, let's do a small rundown of the action that transpired behind the scenes. Here we go:

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Having assisted filmmakers like Girish Kasaravalli and Jacob Varghese prior to making 'GBSM', Hemanth M. Rao was well on his way to begin his directorial career with a bonafide rom-com. The debut film was titled 'Love Churmuri' and starred Chetan Chandra and Deepa Sannidhi as leads, and despite the many efforts of the small crew to get the film made, the funding wouldn't come through the last moment.

"In a way, I am glad that 'Love Churmuri' didn't materialize because I wouldn't have been able to do 'Godhi Banna' with the same passion and intensity otherwise. The film ('Love Churmuri') wasn't up my alley and I was making it because I was given the opportunity," said Hemanth Rao in an inteview recently.

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An independent businessman prior to turning film producer, Pushkar Mallikarjunaiah's embarked on a slightly different journey which began with 'Godhi Banna, Sadharan Mykattu'. Pushkar, as many would attest to the fact, had always been clear-headed when it came to the kind of cinema he wanted to produce, and while Hemanth Rao had also pitched him 'Love Churmuri', the producer in him wasn't convinced until 'GBSM' came along. It just clicked for the two and what followed was a passionate attempt at creating novelty.

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Quite apparently, the film's emotional core revolves around the father-son relationship which rung true with many audience members for its relevance. In an interview with Times of India, director Hemanth M. Rao had stated that although the premise of the film had come to him in different forms, the emotional journey was led by his relationship with his own father.

“I was close to my father when I was young. But somewhere along the line, the words and actions that proved my love for him, stopped being free-flowing. It is this change in dynamics that set me thinking. Of course, through the making of GBSM, it all changed and the film proved to be cathartic. I’m back to being the old me with my father,” said Hemanth in the interview back in 2017.

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Any personal film boasts of a number of moments of sheer catharsis and love and this is particularly true in the case of 'Godhi Banna, Sadharana Mykattu'. For starters, Hemanth M. Rao borrowed a small amount from his father to make up for a chunk of the funding (along with Pushkar Mallikarjunaiah). In the same spirit, Hemanth would shape the narrative keeping his own parents' real-life romance in mind. The concept of a person going missing too was very close to the director's heart who had always pondered over the element of absconsion and the bearing it has on the family.

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A major contributor to the success of 'Godhi Banna' is its vibrant album of songs. Music composer Charan Raj struck the right chord and grew tremendously in popularity and his experiments with the fusion sound translated very well on screen. However, as stated by Hemanth Rao himself in an interview, the soundtrack originally consisted of four tracks but as the production went along, the makers chose to include as many as 9 tracks in the album.

"That is one regret I have when it comes to GBSM and we consciously decided on keeping the songs in 'Kavaludaari' to a minimal number. When I watch 'Godhi Banna' now, I cringe at the fact that they are too many songs, and despite choosing to not release one particular song, we still ended up with nine overall," says the director in an interview.

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