Kumaraswamy to produce Kannada film

Smitha Rao / TNN / Sep 21, 2006, 03:04 IST

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Seven months and counting, and pretty soon chief minister H D Kumaraswamy will revive what he was best at — producing Kannada films.

BANGALORE: Seven months and counting, and pretty soon chief minister H D Kumaraswamy will revive what he was best at — producing Kannada films.
Kumaraswamy, who has been telling the Kannada film industry to give a fillip to literary novels by adapting them for celluloid, will be leading by example. He will be producing a Kannada film called 'Hejje', based on a novel by well-known litterateur Vyasaraya Ballal.
The production venture was slated to kick-off in November, two factors — political turmoil and the film director's dates — have apparently pushed it by a few months, to early January.
Sources in the CM's office inform that Kumaraswamy has asked director S Narayan, who has been Kumaraswamy's blue-eyed boy in the industry, to direct the film.

"The venture was supposed to have been launched as a Rajyotsava initiative in November. The chief minister is still gung-ho about the project but the last few months have taken a toll on his time, so work will start in January."
When he was told about the narrative of 'Hejje', he agreed immediately" they say. Incidentally, the delay is something writer Vyasaraya Ballal and his national award-winning treatise 'Hejje' set in the pre-Independance era, have become accustomed to.

Simply because Kumaraswamy has been in-charge of the rights of the novel for five years now.
So much so that acclaimed director T S Naghabharana who displayed interest in the work, had to drop it when Ballal informed him about the rights of the novel having been pledged elsewhere.
Explains director S Narayan, "I have had many discussions with CM about the work. Initially the writer Ballal was also apprehensive that not many people understood the grammar of the work.
I am presently busy with the shooting of 'Thayiya Madilu', which will be wrapped up in December. The script of 'Hejje' will take a long time to be translated to celluloid, only then will we think of the cast."
Prior to his political baptism, Kumaraswamy was an acclaimed name in Sandalwood, having produced and distributed some 200 films. Here's to a successful potent combination — films and politics.

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