Eregowda, screenwriter of the award-winning film Thithi directed by Ram Reddy, has been chasing a bigger dream. The motivational speaker and creative thinker is turning an independent feature-film director with BaleKempa. Eregowda, in one of his earlier interviews with CE, had expressed his desire to direct a film.

The writer-director, shuttling between Mandya, Bengaluru and Mumbai, is currently busy with the post-production work for his film. We hear that he is taking time to add finer details to his debut directorial, but what makes BaleKempa all the more interesting is that the project has a Bollywood producer investing in a Kannada film.

Our source, working with Eregowda, reveals a few details: “The producer has given complete freedom to the director, putting art before economics. But, they are very particular about how the product will be promoted, and are waiting for work on the film to be completed.”

Meanwhile, BaleKempa also has interesting casting. Eregowda, who was also the man behind roping in amateur actors for Thithi, has followed the same rule in BaleKempa. We hear that he has picked regular people from Mandya for his film, and they will be facing the camera for the first time.

“BaleKempa, which means bangle seller will not be like Thithi, but the filmmaking style will be the same… this is in terms of handling the characters, bringing in authentic local flavour and keeping everything natural, the way it should be. Except for one artiste, who has been been doing serials, the rest of the cast are non actors picked by Eregowda. This is a family drama and entirely shot in Mandya,” our source tell us.