Journalist and critic Sunayana Suresh has now stepped into direction. She has produced and directed a 20-minute short film titled Mouna Raaga. The film, which was showcased at the Bengaluru International Short Film Festival, has received both awards and immense appreciation. Recently, a special screening of the short film was held in Bengaluru.
A few Kannada celebrities, including Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar, Priyanka Upendra, KM Chaitanya, Pannaga Bharana, Bhavana Rao, Meghana Gaonkar, Manvita Kamath, Praveen Tej, Shubhra Ayyappa, Raksh, Prabhu Mundkur, and Disha Madaan, attended the special screening of Mouna Raaga and applauded Sunayana for her outstanding effort. Later, members of the team shared their thoughts.
Actor Shruti Hariharan, who appears in the short film, said, “I have known Sunayana for many years. I’m thrilled to see her as a director now. She has portrayed the everyday struggles of girls so poignantly in just 20 minutes. For those interested in direction, a short film is an ideal platform to showcase their talent, and Sunayana has executed it perfectly. The mother-son sentiment scenes are also very touching.”
“This is my first directorial short film. It has already been screened at the Bengaluru International Short Film Festival and received awards and appreciation. Soon, it will be released on an OTT platform. Mouna Raaga features cinematography by Preetha Jayaram and music direction by All OK. The shooting took place over two days in Bengaluru. Actors Shruti Hariharan, Agniv, Suraj Gowda, Harshil Kaushik, Samyukta Hornad, Aniruddh Acharya, Rajashree Ponnappa, Suvish, Aishwarya Kaushik, All OK, Rishabh, and others appear in the film. Aditya Gunavante worked as the creative producer, and Ashwini Ramesh as the executive producer. "I plan to direct a documentary and a feature film in the future and will share updates soon, said producer and director Sunayana Suresh," who thanked everyone who came for the special screening.
“I have composed the music for this short film. Yogaraj Bhat has written a song for Mouna Raaga,” said music director All OK, who was among the the technicians and artists present at this special screening.