Actor Kishore dons directorial hat for Black and White

Coming up soon on an OTT platform will be a black and white film from actor Kishore Kumar G, popularly known as Kishore. Titled Black and White, the bilingual made in Kannada and Tamil, will also be dubbed in Telugu.

The versatile actor, known for his roles in Jatta, Ulidavaru Kanadante, Haridas, Aadukalam, and Attahaasa, and for playing the antagonist in Kabali, Puli Murugan, Thoonagvanam, and Aarambham, will don a couple of more hats for Black and White. Kishore, incidentally also a farmer, has taken on the directorial responsibilities of the film along with a newcomer. And he has jointly produced the film under the Visthaara banner and Anupama Kumar's production house, Looking Glass.

The psychological thriller will have Anupama playing the female lead. Having made her debut in Vishal Bharadwaj's 2010 black comedy, Ishqiya, she followed it with pivotal roles in Bejoy Nambiar's David, Gautham Vasudev Menon's Neethana En Ponvasntham, AR Murugadoss's Thupakki, among others. She was also part of the recently-released Dhaarala Prabhu.

With a limited cast, Black and White stars another south Indian actor, Roger Narayan, while Srikrishna Dayal and Surekha will also be seen in prominent roles.

Kishore, who is managing multiple roles for the project, is currently busy with the editing work. According to the actor-director, the thriller attempts to explore the black and white elements of human nature, and the fine line between sanity and insanity.

"The narrative is mainly between a husband and wife. Black and White will dwell on the duality of the human psyche, the co-existence of the yin and the yang, the male and the female, the good and the bad, the black and the white... a reality that becomes the texture of our film. It explores how human expressions are manipulated through the society we live in, and looks at the present isolation the world is facing during COVID-19 lockdown. It's all captured in black and white. The film has been shot on Red Dragon camera, and filmed in one location," he says.

An experimental film, Black and White is is inspired by what George Orwell predicted long ago in his 1984 novel, which first introduced the term 'Big Brother'. The 2-hour film is heavily influenced by the thought of a dystopian society, and the team did a lot of research on it. "Making a black and white film meant the team had to burn the midnight oil and research every aspect, including the camera, lens, and lights most suited for this kind of adventure, as well as the colour of the set, costumes, and makeup. We had to make a few changes, but we finally got there," says Anupama.

The team wants to dedicate this film to the traditions of Hitchcock and Kubrick. "Being diehard fans of Hitchcock and Kubrick, we often wonder why we didn't think of it before," says Anupama, adding, "When Kishore and I initially heard the story of Black and White, we just knew that this was a film we had to make. Self-financing the movie came with its own set of challenges, as expected. We were lucky to meet and collaborate with some like-minded talented people, who came on board as co-producers and made this happen."

The technical crew includes music director Keerthan and Tapas Nayak on sound. Cinematography is by Nagesh Acharya.

The production house is currently in talks with various OTT platforms to release the film.