It is not a marathon race but a marathon shooting for a Kannada film on Sunday. The rendezvous for the 18 hours Kannada film shoot ‘Sugriva’ starring superstar Shivrajakumar, Yagna Shetty in the lead – Rajarajeswari Medical College on Mysore Road was looking full of activities after the film was flagged off at 6 am. NICE company proprietor Ashok Kheney sounded the clap board while Smt.Geetha Shivarajakumar, Nivedhitha and Nirupama (daughters of Shivarajakumar) switched on the camera for the muhurut shot.

Superstar Shivarajakumar speaking to media at the Kiran Garage which he owns in the cinema ‘Sugriva’ says he is remembering the Adyar Film Institute Days. The remembering of dialogues and reacting to it in the mind is the process taught in the film institute. Utmost presence of mind is necessary for this kind of hectic shoot. The concept of the cinema is good. There is purpose, message, comedy, entertainment etc he said. There is lot of happiness in doing this project and taking up this task is very challenging he says. Shivarajakumar has change of 16 costumes for his 44 scenes in the film.

What is the film ‘Sugriva’ all about? How to make use of the government sanction to the lower middle class is effectively stored in this film as the hero Shivarajakumar enters the hospital with his child that is in need of a heart. As the hospital demand Rs.35 lakhs for transplantation of heart the poor mechanic Shivarajakumar arrange for only Rs.8 lakhs but the hospital demands more money. It is at this time another child dies and the father of it donates the organ. Yet the hospital makes mistake and at this stage Shivarajakumar ‘HIJACK’ the entire hospital. After the hijack drama the protagonist take control to his hand and start doing well for hundreds in the hospital ala ‘Munna Bhai’ style! The hijack of the entire hospital creates ripples. The government intervenes. The police and army are deployed to look at the safety of the inmates of the hospital. It is dangerous situation everyone feels outside but there is something else happening inside the hospital. How the hijack ends is the climax of the film.

• As the media entered just to take a look at the shooting proceedings superstar Shivarajakumar was getting down from an auto to enter the hospital where his child with acute heart problem is in ICU – director PN Sathya did the briefing of his six scenes.
• We moved on to director Anantharaju who is handling the next six scenes. The hospital scenes of Shivarajakumar, Yagna Shetty and the child Chiranjeevi is Ananthnaraju portion. He has explained the demand made for money and protagonist losing his temper and in commotion trying to avoid his wife from knowing the disease of their son.
• We moved on to next director Nagshekhar who explained his portion of shoot and the 2000 people working for the completion of the film in 18 hours. Not even a single minute is not going waste and by 10.30 - 16 scenes have been completed. On an average four scenes per hour – everything in right order disclosed Nagashekar who is also part of the hospital scenes capturing.
• Then we took a look at the marching orders, the people thronging at the hospital, the media rushing and the police making lathi charge after knowing the hijack news. The tenses portions were captured in the camera by Manohar in the direction of Omprakash Rao. Always looking tense Omprakash Rao bashing the wrong doers and taking stock of the situation was looking joyous too. He hailed the effort of producer Anaji Nagaraj coming up from scratch and doing this kind of cinema by Anaji Nagaraj shows his commitment and devotion towards the work said Rao. Rao finished his ‘AK56’ shoot at 2 am and reached the shooting spot at 5 am. Without sleep and urge to make it big he was looking totally exhausted.
• Then the media went on to see the busy schedule of director Pramod Chakravarthy that is in the huge all of the hospital.
• The visit was then made to the house set up of the hero and a dance class on the third floor. Director Gubbi explained his portion of interiors shoot and what exactly happens inside the four walls of a family.
• Then we moved on to Mallasandra – where Zee TV set Kuniyonu Baara was handled by director Raghav Loki. It is the competition in which Shivarajakumar son Chiranjeevi fall sick at the final round. He is shifted from here to the hospital. Gurukiran the music director of the film ‘Sugriva’ was the judge at this competition. There are a few bits for this dance competition and there is one title song for this film that has the tunes ready but lyrics has to be mixed said Gurukiran.

Producer Anaji Nagaraj was in cool state of mind as the progress was quite ok in the morning when the media met him. For this 18 hours cinema shooting Anaji Nagaraj had planned for 18 hours of processing and 18 hours of editing and mixing and releasing the film in the next 18 hours after passing the censor board. It would be tough and quality suffers he felt and taken more time for the release now. He is investing Rs.3 crores on this project and informed the deployment of four additional cameras because the shifting would take more time. The rent for hiring the equipments would touch Rs.50 lakhs and expenditure wise it is a regular film because there are four calls of each unit. There are 12 units working for this film and it comes to 48 call sheets he explained.

According to www.chitratara.com information at 4 pm nearly 50 percent of shoot was complete for the film.

Good luck once again for ‘Sugriva’ team!

Manohar. R.(Manu),
chitrataramanu@gmail.com
Photo Journalist
M: 9845549026
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