Filmmakers roll out open-top Premier Padmini to audience

The makers of Premier Padmini have come up with a novel idea to connect with audience. Since the film bears the name of the popular yesteryear car, the team has decided to put up a Premier Padmini for auction.

Audiences stand a chance of owning a modified version of the open-top Premier Padmini. The car will be on display at the main theatre on the day of its release (April 26), and the audience can bid for it. “The vintage car plays a prominent role just like the film's characters played by Jaggesh, Pramod, Sudharani and Madhoo. It was quite a challenging task for us to look for a car that’s in good condition,” explains first-time producer Shruti Naidu.

The challenge became harder because the team was specifically looking for not one, but two vintage cars. “Our first choice was a Premier Padmini that was in a working condition. While looking for such cars, we came across two kinds of people. One were those who were still maintaining the vehicle with a lot of passion and didn’t want to sell their vehicle, as they wanted to keep it as a valuable antique. Second were those who were willing to sell these cars, but their cars were not in working condition. It was after a massive search that we were able to find two cars, one in Bengaluru and the other in Mysuru,” says Shruti. 

The team’s other hurdle was modifying a Premier Padmini to be an open-top car. “This vintage vehicle makes use of an old mechanism, and replacing the frames was hard. Finally, an experienced car mechanic in Mysuru was able to create what we had envisioned. Though the car was bought for Rs 80,000, the modifications alone cost Rs 1 lakh,” she says.

The film, directed by Ramesh Indra, revolves around the struggles of marriage and divorce. It is themed around the lead hero, his driver and their relationship with the car. While Hitha Chandrashekar also part of the cast, Premier Padmini has Arjun Janya scoring the music and cinematography by Advaita Gurumurthy.