Overwhelmed by the response for Avane Srimannarayana: Director Sachin Ravi

It’s raining appreciation for Rakshit Shetty’s latest film, Avane Srimannarayana, and the praise has made debutant director Sachin Ravi ecstatic. The cop period drama saw a pan-India release with multiple dates, starting with Kannada on December 27, followed by the dubbed version of Telugu on January 1, and Tamil and Malayalam on January 3.

The team, which paid a visit to the other states, is currently doing the rounds in Karnataka. They are on a four-day visit and are covering places in Bengaluru, Tumakuru, Chitradurga, Davangere, Hubli, Dharwad, Udupi and  Mangaluru, before ending the promotional tour in Mandya.

According to the director, after a “stupendous” opening in the Kannada industry, Tollywood too has given Avane Srimannarayana a thumbs up. The film opened to good response and collection, while also receiving critical acclaim from the Tamil and Malayalam audience. “Word of mouth has been helping Avane Srimannarayana's reach in different places. Overall, everything looks positive,” says Sachin, who is looking forward to the Hindi release as well. “Bollywood will get a trimmed version, which will run for two hours and 52 minutes. This version is also out in all other languages since last Friday,” he tells us.

Sachin, who firmly believes in just doing good work, never expected such an outcome for the film. The response has been overwhelming for the director, who claims he is not in a position to express his happiness. The first-timer, who also handled the film’s editing and visual effects, says the character Narayana is a big winner with audiences. “Everything Narayana does in the film was enjoyed. Even his combination with Achyuth anna (Achyuth Kumar) along with the rest of the characters, played by Shanvi Srivastava and other cast members, has been received well. Every element of the film has been accepted,” says Sachin, who admits that the only problem audience members had was with the film’s length.

“As a filmmaker, I have watched the film 100 times. I feel there is a difference in the opinion we get from friends and the general audience. Accordingly, 8 out of 10 who watched the film said they enjoyed it but mentioned the length, especially in the second half, as a downside. This was a judgment we couldn’t make before the film’s release. We expected people to enjoy it, but the audience felt there was a lag. Based on their opinions, we have trimmed the film,” says Sachin.

The film has been jointly produced by Pushkar Malliakarjunaiah and HK Prakash. It has music by Ajaneesh B Lokanath and Charan Raj, and camera work by Karm Chawla.