Mane Maratakide will be a laugh riot, assures director Manju Swaraj

Viewers should get ready to go on a laughter ride with Mane Maratakide, says director Manju Swaraj, who has managed to bring together top comedians of the Kannada film industry — Sadhu Kokila, Chikkanna, Kuri Prathap, and Ravi Shankar Gowda — for his film. In addition to these actors, Sruthi Hariharan, who was last seen in Nathicharami, will be back on the silver screen with the film after a hiatus. She plays the female lead, while Karunya Ram plays a pivotal role in Mane Maratakide, which is set to hit theatres on November 15. 

According to the director, Mane Maratakide, produced by SV Babu, is a horror-comedy, and he had quite the task with blocking the dates of all the comedians. “Today, comedians are the busiest actors in the industry. Each of them takes up at least 50 films a year, and they give dates for five films per month. It took me six months to bring all the four together for this project,” he adds. 

Manju Swaraj, who has previously helmed films like Shravani Subramanya and the Shivarajkumar-starrer Srikanta, says it was the producer’s wish to come up with a comedy film. “Babu and I had previously collaborated on Pataki, starring Ganesh, and it was then that he mentioned his love for comedy films. When we worked together, he felt that I could handle comedy well, and that gave rise to Mane Maratakide.”

The film is about four characters from different backgrounds — Chikkana is a bartender, Sadhu Kokila plays a pujari, Kuri Pratap is a salon-owner, and Ravi Shankar Gowda plays a security person at an ATM. All of them require money to turn into real estate agents, and try to sell a lucrative property, reveals the director.

Mane Maratakide’s music has been composed by Abhimann Roy and the camerawork is by Suresh Babu.