Namasthe India, 126 mins; 1 shot, priceless

BANGALORE: It was 11.40am last Thursday. There was hectic activity around the Virupaksha Temple in Hampi. As hero Dhanush and heroine Maitreya and other artistes took their positions in different areas around the 2-km radius of the temple, director Gunavantha Manju shouted 'Action!'. There was pin-drop silence as cinematographer Nandakumar switched on the camera and moved around the area without a break.
And 126 minutes later, the Kannada movie 'Namasthe India' was completed in one shot.
"It's a dream come true. I wanted to do a Kannada movie differently and I did it in one shot," said Manju, who practised for months to get it right.
In August, Manju came up with this idea. He approached many heroes and heroines who weren't too enthusiastic about it. "Dhanush and Maitreya agreed to act in it. As shooting a movie in one shot requires craftsmanship and practice, we started work two months ago in Bangalore. We went to Hampi last week and practised six times over three days. We had a perfect plan and we succeeded," Manju said.
The director had fixed positions for all the sequences very close to one another. Manju had purchased a 250GB chip from Hyderabad for the shoot. The movie has four songs, stunts, romance and drama. Not to forget the message about patriotism.
Since the positions were very close to each other, the cinematographer moved the camera as per the plan smoothly for 2 hours, 10 minutes during which the hero had to change his costume thrice. There were over 50 local students who were part of the movie. Dhanush is a guide and a karate teacher. The film, shot outdoor with natural light, won't be edited..
Dhanush said, "I'm glad to be part of it. It's a great experience to see a movie done in one shot. It was very hot here but we managed to complete the movie without a glitch." The movie will hit the screens on January 26.