Kannada director wins prestigious award 

Hemanth Rao, director of Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu, bagged the Gollapudi Srinivas Award for his Kannada film at a function organised on Saturday.  The filmmaker never ever thought he’d win this award. “I have seen a lot of films that have earlier bagged this award including Lens, and to know that my name is now a part of that list makes me feel honoured. My first film was shelved but I’m glad. I learned valuable lessons from the experiences of my shelved film. That helped me in the making of Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu,” he says. Reminiscing about the appreciation he got for the film, he adds, “That gave me the hope and confidence not only that the demands of the Kannada audience are changing but also that if your content is strong, it will do well.”

Post the release of the film, media houses covered a variety of stories that raised awareness about Alzheimer’s, a key aspect of the film. “I am glad that finally, awareness is being spread about Alzheimer’s.”

On asked whether the movie tries to subtly portray the issue of parents being ignored once they get old, he says, “I’m not an NGO to spread messages. My focus was primarily on Alzheimer’s and the emotions that a family will go through when an affected person goes missing. Even my research for making the film was based on this perspective.”

The movie, which was released in 14 countries, is the first Kannada film to win the award and the Tamil and Telugu remake rights have been bagged by Prakash Raj. Talking about his future projects, the director says, “My next film is  Kavalu Daari, which is going on the floors this September and will most probably get a release in early 2018. Puneeth Rajkumar has agreed to bankroll the film and Manish Rishi, lead of the recent release, Operation Alamelamma, has been signed as the lead.”