Aindrita Ray to do a silent act

In the beginning, cinema was silent. Today commercial filmmaking cannot be imagined without the grandiloquent dialogues and many songs. But here is a director who wants to turn back the clock and return to the splendour of the silent era.

This innovative attempt by debutant director Sreehari will be for a feature film scripted by him, and in this we hear that he wants to “express through silence.” The pre-production work has begun and the film is likely to go on floors from January. And the lead role will be played by Aindrita Ray.

The actor, who has been out of the spotlight for a while now in Karnataka, was in fact waiting for an interesting project from the Kannada industry and wanted to pick the best. After much thought, she has decided to work with this first-time director and experiment with silent filmmaking. The team does not want to reveal too many details till they are at least mid-way through the shoot.

Our source, however, shared a few interesting tidbits about its making. The director, who has worked in advertising and media for 14 years, will be using this experience for this film. The team plans to rope in top artistes from across industries from Bollywood and Kollywood.

“The director has been thinking about making such a film for the past two years,” says our source. “He has watched films such as the 1987 silent film Pushpaka Vimana, but these did not inspire him to work on this film. He wanted to make a unique debut and, though the script could easily accommodate dialogues, he was keen on keeping this as a silent film.”

The team is also planning to rope in the best technicians who have an expertise in silent cinema. “The only fresh talent in the tech team will be the sound engineers,” says our source, and adds, “There is going to be sync sound in this.”

This film will be marketed as a pan-India one. In Tamil, Prabhudheva, too, is working on a silent film and is nearly done with its shoot.