Women enjoy a strong presence in Indian mythology and that is also reflected in Kurukshetra, the war epic, written by JK Bharavi, produced by Muniratna and directed by Naganna. Based on the poem Gadhayuddha by Ranna, the tale is told from the point of view of Duryodhana, who is played by Darshan in his landmark 50th film.

Cinema Express got a sneak peek into the looks of the various women in the film, such as Sneha who plays the role of Draupadi, Meghana Raj who features as Bhanumati, and Hariprriya and Aditi Arya as Maaye and Uttara, respectively, all of whom are major characters in Kurukshetra. Also featuring in prominent roles are Bharathi Vishnuvardhan as Kunti, Anupama as Gandhari, and Pavithra Lokesh as Arjuna’s wife, Subhadra.

Director Naganna recounts an old saying that Mahabharata wouldn’t have been complete without women, and tells us that these characters have their own relevance and add weightage to the epic drama. “Besides these actors, hundreds of women are part of the film as junior artistes. It gives a festive feel when you watch this folklore cinema on 3D,” says Naganna, adding that a lot of investment has gone into creating the costumes for all the characters. “We consulted four-five costume designers from Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai. We took a lot of references, and utmost importance was given to create the appearance of that era. We had to match the colour tone of the costumes to the set design, so that everything looks interconnected.”

The four female leads each have a song in the film. The music has been composed by V Harikrishna, while lyrics have been written by Nalla Nagendra. The song, Chaaruthanti, featuring Meghana Raj and Darshan has already crossed one million views within days of its release. The makers are planning to release the other songs at equal intervals before the film’s release.

The mythological drama, said to be made with a budget of Rs 100 crore, has been shot in both 2D and 3D in Kannada. Distributed under the banner of Rockline Venkatesh, Kurukshetra will be simultaneously dubbed and released in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi on August 2. The multi-starrer, which also features Ambareesh, Ravichandran, Arjun Sarja, Ravi Shankar, and Nikhil Kumar, has cinematography by Jayanan Vincent, while Jo Ni Harsha is the editor.