NRIs to produce Kannada film, Rathnamanjarii

The growing interest of Non-Resident Indians in Kannada cinema is noticable. The latest to join this bandwagon is Nataraja Halebedu and S Sandeep Kumar. Both of them are residents of the USA, who have now turned producers for Ratnamanjanrii. The film is directed by PraSiddh, who is also an NRI residing in Norway.

The techie-turned-filmmakers are testing the waters with the film, which will mostly star newcomers. While fifty per cent of shoot was done in Madikeri, the remaining portion will be shot in the USA. But before that the makers are planing a mega audio function at the AKKA Sammelana, which is likely to take place on September 1. “Since both of us live in America, we decided to have two audio launches -- one at AKKA and the other in Bengaluru. The one in Bengaluru is likely to take place on the first of October,” Sandeep tells us.

A thriller, Rathnamanjarii, is based on a true-life incident that took place in the USA in 2005. “The film is based on a real incident that happened between NRIs, so it is mostly shot in these two places,” he says.

Raj Charan plays the lead with three heroines - Akhila Prakash, Pallavi Raju and Shraddha Salian. “Since 50 per cent of our film is shot in the USA, it’s mostly Indians residing there who play various characters. We had around 700 entries coming from theatre artistes and others, who we auditioned before choosing our cast,” Sandeep says.

The makers says they are shooting with Hollywood standards considering the storyline. “We are not compromising on technical standards.The film is an honest attempt by NRIs,” says Sandeep.

Interestingly, the film’s cinematographer is Preetham Tegginamane, who recently won the Dada Saheb Phalke award for his short film, Kaaji. Assisting him is Kitty Kaushik. The film has music by Harshavardhan Raju.

Hollywood mask creator roped in

The team is bringing down a Hollywood technician, Elka Amorim, who has worked in films such as Avengers and Spiderman. He is known for creating masks for super heroes. “We have a mask in our film, for which we have roped him in as he is the best technician from Hollywood,” says Sandeep.