The idea of a terrorism-based film with a female lead intrigued me

As a filmmaker, PC Shekar’s goal has been to make entertaining films across multiple genres, something he continues with his latest, the interestingly titled, The Terrorist. “When I set out to make films, I had decided that I would never stick to one genre as a filmmaker. Doing a regular love story is very easy. Transitioning between genres isn’t, and I believe that it is important for any director to keep making that switch and that too with films that are deemed commercial and have all the elements that audiences look for.That’s a challenge always and I look forward to that,” says Shekar, who has dabbled with romance, comedy, action and fantasy in his previous works.
His next, The Terrorist, is his most realistic work till date, says Shekar. “Every other day you hear something about an attack in different parts of the world. Terrorism is a vast subject and capturing all of it one film is impossible. Over the years, I have been keeping a track of terrorist activities and wanted to make a film about it, but I knew that the story had to be written carefully. One thing that I have noticed is that human beings are always in the pursuit of happiness and most often there is a struggle to achieve that. The theme of The Terrorist, therefore, is that where there is peace, there is love; you will not get peace through violence,” he adds.
While Shekar has looked at attacks in London, Boston and Mumbai for references, the 2009 serial bomb blasts in Bengaluru became the mainstay of the story. “I looked at why and how an attack happens, motives, the political scenario, and how intelligence agencies function and react to such incidents. That is a lot of research and that is the part I love the most as a filmmaker. It inspires me as a writer,” he says.
To make the subject even more interesting, Shekar then decided to tread the path less taken — he focused his story on a woman protagonist and got Ragini Dwivedi for the role. “A female-centric story on terrorism is relatively new and Ragini liked that premise, especially the emotions in the story about how it is often women who are most affected by an act of terrorism. She referred me to a friend, Alankara Santhana, who was looking at making films in Kannada. He liked the story as well and that’s how the film came to be,” he signs off.