Puneeth Rajkumar and I have mutual respect for each other: Yuvarathnaa director Santhosh Ananddram

Having delivered successful hits with Mr and Mrs Ramachari and Raajakumara, director Santhosh Ananddram now hopes to continue the streak with his next outing, Yuvarathnaa. The film marks Santhosh's second collaboration with Puneeth Rajkumar and Hombale Films.

A commercial director, his idea of filmmaking is to entertain viewers with inspirational stories — something he has followed in his first two films. For his third, Santhosh has chosen the subject of the injustice in the education sector and privatisation of schools. He categorises Yuvarathnaa, which will have a mega release on April 1, as a realistic action-entertainer that can be understood by a commoner.

“Yuvarathnaa, which highlights relevant and important topics, is driven with neat punch lines, solid action sequences, love and emotions, all of which make it a wholesome entertainer. It also comes with a social message. Now we have to wait and see how the masses react,” he says.

Santhosh adds that the tagline of the film, ‘Power of Youth’, describes the story. “It is related to the plot, which underlines the importance of youth. Today, young people are connected digitally. This should be a force for good rather than a diversion. The youth should be motivated to head in the right direction. This is what I am trying to throw light upon,” he says.

With Puneeth Rajkumar in the lead, Yuvarathnaa brings together an ensemble cast that includes Sayyeshaa, Dhananjay, Prakash Raj, and Radhika Sarathkumar. 

Considering Yuvarathnaa is the director's second collaboration with Puneeth and the producer, the rapport that they share has only gotten stronger. “We have mutual respect for each other which has helped. As for Puneeth, he has always been a writer and director’s actor. He turns a director’s vision into reality,” says Santhosh.

The technical team includes music director S Thaman, editor Jnaanesh B Matad, and DoP Venkatesh Anguraj, and Santhosh has nice to say about each of them. “Thaman has been a favourite of both mine and Puneeth. He is an excellent music composer, and his rerecording for Yuvarathnaa is completely out of the box. Editor Jnaanesh has previously worked with KM Prakash and has independently worked on Geetha. This is the first time he has individually handled a big film. Going forward, he will be an editor that Kannada cinema can look up to. As for the cinematographer, Venkatesh Anguraj and I worked together on Raajakumara,” he says, adding that Venkatesh has “embedded a realistic subject in commercial frames” for this film.