'Gender plays a big part in Vaanku'

... says Kavya Prakash, who is making her directorial debut with the Anaswara Rajan-starrer
'Gender plays a big part in Vaanku'

What if a woman suddenly decides to take on a profession that has long been considered a man’s? In debutant Kavya Prakash’s Vaanku, Anaswara Rajan plays a girl who wants to be a muezzin like her father. It’s the resultant conflict that drives the film’s narrative. How does society react to something like that?

One can easily see why Kavya found this subject appealing. She, too, is taking on a profession mostly dominated by men. The daughter of veteran director VK Prakash, the Visual Communication graduate learned filmmaking after joining Nirvana Films, the Bangalore-based company that specialises in ad films. She was also taught by BTech director Mridul Nair who, interestingly, was a protege of her father’s.

But being VK Prakash’s daughter didn’t exactly make things easy for Kavya as her film deals with a sensitive subject. Besides, the film is led by four female characters played by Anaswara, Nandhana Varma, Gopika Ramesh, and Meenakshi Unnikrishnan. Naturally, all these factors posed a challenge to securing funding.

“A lot of people weren’t open to the film. They were nervous. There is no male lead to speak of—the only one who comes close is Vineeth, playing Anaswara’s father. As it’s mostly a female-oriented subject, the male presence is relatively less,” she says.

Kavya was drawn to the film due to personal reasons and the subject’s relevance today. “Gender plays a big part in the film. It’s also got a beautiful message and explores a myriad of emotions associated with family, humour, emotions, friendship, love between friends, and so on,” she says.

Vaanku has a script by Shabna Muhammed based on Unni R’s story. Ouseppachan has composed the music to PS Rafeeque’s lyrics. It has been shot by Arjun Ravi and edited by Suresh Urs.

Shabeer Pathan and Sirajudheen have bankrolled the film which will be hitting theatres on March 13.

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