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April 01, 2017
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Happy New Year
Pannaga Bharana
Pannaga Bharana's Exclusive Interview With FiLMiBEE
Pannaga Bharana..!! Yes!! The name itself drags your attention, so does the man with this name. The talented man Pannaga Bharana is gearing up for his first debut directorial flick. He was a child artist, a theatre artist and now he is a director. Yes! His first film as a director, ‘HAPPY NEW YEAR’ is getting ready to hit the theatres on May 5th.
Interviewed & Written By Vinayak Naik!
• What qualities did you intake from your Father?
Frankly speaking, I still have to learn a lot from him. But, since I was assisting him in his previous films, there are lot of techniques that I've learnt from him. Since he is from theatre background, he is extremely amazing in art of film making, which I'm trying to explore. And I really want to learn the patience that he has on the sets. He has immense amount of patience.
• When did the spark ignited within you to direct a film?
After finishing my 12th, We had put up our own editing studio. During those days, my pocket money wasn’t free of cost, had to earn my pocket money. So, I started working with an editor in our own studio & my parents were paying me every month which itself was my pocket money. During this process, I was editing some scenes & If I didn't like some shots, I was confessing like, this could have been much better or this is not good or something similar to that. When I was saying those words, my mom was like "What are you complaining about? You need to get into the field to see how difficult it is. It's very easy to sit on the editing table and complain. You'll face lots of challenges while doing films". When she used to say those words, I just questioned myself, Why shouldn't I try to direct a movie and the next moment I spoke to my dad and said that I'll be coming to the sets with him and I requested him to teach me direction.
• Since you've been a theatre artist why you choose to be behind the camera, instead of being in front of the camera?
(Laughs) I have acted as a child actor in my Dad's films. I was an replacement actor for my dad. If there were no one, my dad was like ‘my son will do it’. Later on, my whole concentration was towards the direction. I wanted a more responsible job than acting. I feel, director has more responsibilities than an actor. I always wanted to do something more creative.
Sometime in between, I had decided to stop acting & concentrate completely towards direction. At the same time, my close friend Prajwal Devraj said, "What are you doing? You should come out and act". So, I decided to act again & luckily I got a chance to act with Prajwal Devraj in 'Mrugashira' for which I had won 'Best Actor In Supporting Role' at SIIMA awards.
• How had your journey been till date?
It wasn’t a take off for sure. I had my own issues & problems. I have faced my own failures. On the advise of my Dad, I went to New York Film Academy and did my Masters in Film Making. After studying there for 2 years, worked there for a year, and came back to Bombay, worked there for 6 months. Then I returned back to Bangalore and started searching for producers, and during those days I had struggled a lot to convince the producers.
Right now, there is a change in the wave. Movies like Uturn, Tithi or GBSM have proved that people will love & accept such subjects too. So, recently it has helped the producers to think the other way. This made my work easy, because the script I had was also a different kind.
• How did the 'Happy New Year' Start?
Since my subject was not of regular format, no producers were ready to fund my subject. I was totally fed up running behind the producers & finally decided to fund my subject & titled the flick as 'Happy New Year'. During that period, luckily all of a sudden I found B C Patil. I visited his office, gave him all the other scripts I had prepared, except HNY. But, he rejected all the scripts & asked me to submit something different. So, I submitted him the script of HNY. I was very glad that he just loved the script & said that he was in the hunt of similar script. So, this was how HNY had started.
• Why the title 'Happy New Year'?
Definitely, the film is not about something like new year. Actually, the title plays a character in the film which could bring subtext.
• Since HNY is you first movie, what challenges did you face?
Frankly speaking, the challenges which I faced was before starting the movie. Making this movie was a very easy task for me, because I got the best technicians, best artists and everybody was very warm and welcoming to me.
• There is a big star cast in the movie. So How difficult was it to bring everyone on the board?
Actually, It was very easy for me to get them on board. I had to just go meet them and narrate the script. They all had just loved it. Infact, the characters were so strong, the moment they heard about their respective characters, they started liking the script & they themselves wanted to be in the film.
• In total how many characters are there?
We have 11 main actors in the film & other 5 supporting actors.
• What is happy new year all about?
Everybody’s life depends on 2 things, Right? One is love & the other is hope. Love to survive for today and hope to look out for tomorrow. So, HNY is all about the same. It's about different characters who are heading towards a new hope with the love of life for today.
• KFI is heading towards the next level. But the market is very less. So, do you think the market effects the profit of the films?
Market definitely effects the profit of the films. Actually, we're earning profit, but the margin of the profit is less. Right now, it's growing, and it's growing for good.
• Is there pressure on you as you got a legacy to carry on?
That worked as a negative to me when I started off initially. When I went to the producers they were like ‘He his son of that guy, so he will make award winning movies but not commercial movies’. So, I never got movies then. Now, after completion of my flim, obviously there will be some sort of expectations from me. So, there will be two set of people looking out for me. One is the fans who are following my father who expect me to make movies like him. The other set is who won't like my fathers movies, who would be curious to see what I'm going do.
What I want to say is, Don’t bring in the burden to me. I'm an individual film maker, I'm an individual person with my own individual experiences. So, I'm doing something on my own. Pls do watch it as a new film maker trying to do something in the industry, which you would probably like it then.
• What's next after HNY?
These many years when I wasn’t doing movies, I sat down and started writing scripts. I have 7 scripts in my hand right now. I'm already in contact with couple of people now. So probably I'll take the call after the release of HNY movie.
