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'Comedy is the highest form of entertainment'

Upcoming Kannada film director P C Shekar has managed a casting coup of sorts with this week's release Chaddi Dosth.

He has pitted veteran comedians Rangayana Raghu and Sadhu Kokila against each other, ensuring a full-on comedy.

This is Shekar’s fourth film. He shot two short films titled You Are My Friend and My Imagination at the start of his career. His first film in Tamil, Kadhalen Kadhal won him critical acclaim, though it didn’t do well at the box office.

The Bangalore-based filmmaker went on to make Nayaka and Romeo (starring Ganesh and Bhavana) in Kannada before trying his hand now with Chaddi Dosth (Childhood friend) in the comedy genre.

Chaddi Dosth is produced by Mohan Chhabria of Anand Audio. Kumaran is the cinematographer. Arjun Janya is the music director, Santhu as lyricist, Saravanan as editor and Nataraj as the dialogue writer. The film is based on Shekar’s own story.

In this interview, Shekar talks to Srikanth Srinivasa about Chaddi Dosth and what it took him to pit two comedians against each other.

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'I wanted to explore friendship as a central theme for a movie'

What is Chaddi Dosth about?

The movie is about friendship. We get showered with love and affection from our parents, siblings and relatives as kids.

As soon as we enter school, there is a friend who holds your hand, sometimes for life.

In our later stage of course, we fall in love which is the greatest emotion.

I wanted to explore friendship as a central theme for a movie. Who is a good friend? A good friend is someone who is there for you and with you in difficult times. It is when a friend shares your woes that friendship goes to another level.

Why did you choose to do a comedy?

I feel comedy is the highest form of entertainment. It’s the best form to bring something as serious as friendship to celluloid. 

'I am a fan of Rangayana Raghu and Sadhu Kokila'

Why did you choose to cast Sadhu Kokila and Rangayana Raghu? How did you manage to bring them together?

If I have to talk about friendship, I would need two characters. I am a fan of Rangayana Raghu and Sadhu Kokila. I had worked with them in my earlier movie.

What inspired me to put them together is the excitement that they generate in the theatres. They make people laugh and light up the screen even when they make just a 10-minute appearance.

I was curious, anxious and ambitious to know how they could entertain if their roles are extended to two hours ten minutes.

I believed it would be a laugh riot to have them together for the whole movie.

I just narrated a few lines to both of them and they were on board, putting their full faith in me.

What do you think works in their favour?

We wanted different styles of comedy. Rangayana Raghu is brilliant in dialogue delivery, modulation and timing. Sadhu Kokila has brilliant body language that makes people laugh almost immediately.

When the two of them come together I thought there would be a lot of variety and that comedy styling will also change.

Both of them are at the top as character artistes and comedians. They are truly the kings of comedy.

'We have tried to make it a musical comedy'

What are the other elements in the movie?

We have a screenplay structure that requires unconventional editing techniques. The intelligence and humour comes from the writing. We have employed texturing in camera work. There are no sets and no additional properties. Everything you see is real.

The colour concepts employed are also different. We have a brown to green concept. There are only four colours used in the film.

Arjun Janya’s music goes with the narrative as we have tried to make it a musical comedy and not too verbal.

Who plays their love interests in the movie?

Roopashree, who is Sadhu Kokila’s love interest, plays a loud don in the movie. Although she is a don, she is dressed in a sari but acts manly. 

The other female character played by Ashwini Gowda is feminine but keeps her emotions to herself. She has to convey things through her facial expressions because she is not verbally expressive.