Animated crab is villain in Ravi Basrur’s Kataka

Kataka presented by Puneeth Rajkumar and produced by NS Rajkumar marks the directorial debut of Ravi Basrur in Kannada. This music director, who is currently scoring music for films such as KGF and Anjaniputra, has also directed movies in Kundapura language, titled Gargar Mandla and Bilindar. 

Ravi has zeroed in on a true story, based on black magic, for his Kannada debut. “This is from an incident that took place in the state’s coastal belt, where black magic was performed on a five-year-old girl. Happenings around this event will be presented using artistic liberty in Kataka,” says Ravi Basrur, who adds that he had seven to eight scripts in hand for his Kannada venture. “When I consulted the team, they said that this was the subject to start with,” he says.

The director is not keen on making a regular horror film, and has brought in an interesting villain in a crab. “It is more of a triangle story set around the father, daughter and the crab. Though, it is a horror movie, you won’t see sadhus or poojas. The world of black magic is entirely different and the movie will focus on the after effect of such rites,” he says.

Interestingly, Kataka will use an animated crab and the filmmakers have thought about it in much detail. “Initially, we had a table work and later we did a fibre modelling of the crab, and approached people who are into 3D modelling,” he says. “Later Pixel Frames worked on the visual effects, coming out with the final version of the crab that will be seen on screen.”

This composer-turned-filmmaker has scored music for the film himself, and he has paid special attention to the sound. He has tied up with 14 sound-producing companies, who will be bringing in different kinds of musical effects to Kataka. “I wanted a signature sound for the film and that is why I got in touch with different companies, who have then come up with various sounds… this will be one of the highlights,” he says.

Apart from child artiste Shlaga Saligrama and Ashok Raj, playing the lead roles as daughter and father, the film also features Bala Rajvadi and Spandana Prasad among others. Kataka to be distributed by KRG Studios has cinematography by Sachin Basrur.