May 1st reunites J Karthik with Nagendra Urs

In his initial days as an actor, the roles that

J Karthik

got were all as antagonist, until he decided to make the switch to television and landed the lead role on

Ashwini Nakshatra

. “Until then, people only saw me as a fairly good-looking dude, who played villain. Director-editor Nagendra Urs was making a Tamil film with Shivakarthikeyan back then, but the project got stalled mid-way and he decided to instead make it in Kannada and approached me. That was quite a boost for me that a well-known editor and filmmaker from Sandalwood was looking at launching me as hero. I took up the film,

Just Love

, which gave me the confidence that I could do hero roles, too. I realised that I was looking for a push and Nagendra gave me that,” says JK, adding that he is forever indebted to the director for that.
In the years since, the duo stayed in touched and had even shot promos for a couple of films that they wanted to work on, but couldn’t get going. “Nagendra is an amazing technician and I wanted to collaborate with him again. After writing the script of

May 1st

, I first ran it by him for his take on the subject, after which I asked him if he would direct it as well. He understands me well as an actor and what I can bring to the table,” says JK.