Action takes centre stage in Happy Birthday

While Happy Birthday might come across as a harmless wish, the words have a different connotation altogether ' and that comes across with the tagline of an upcoming Kannada film that borrows its title from the greeting, which reads, 'Maga Ithe Ninge'. The trailers and songs from this film, directed by K Mahesh Sukhadhare and featuring newcomers Sachin and Samskruthy Shenoy, are, undoubtedly, high on romance.However, Mahesh tells us that there is more than meets the eye. 'There is a lot of stress on action and comedy as well in the film,' he says.
While the fun bits are threefold, what with the industry's current popular comic icons Chikkanna, Sadhu Kokila and Bullet Prakash appearing onscreen together, the action scenes are said to have taken a lot more planning and work. 'We had four top fight masters directing Sachin for some important fight sequences in the film. Ram Lakshman, who has choreographed action sequences for some of the biggest Tollywood stars, has put together a fight in a very realistic manner. So much so that we also included real-life rowdies as part of the shoot that was held at a sugar factory. Such a thing was last done for the film Om years ago. Then, there's Ravi Verma, who needs no introduction. His stunts on the cycle that have been included in the film's teaser have become a rage among viewers already. When you think of stunts involving bikes or cars, the first and only name that comes to mind is that of Jolly Bastian. For Happy Birthday, he has experimented with an auto chase that one can compare to the sort of stunts done by someone like Jackie Chan. And, finally, there is Thriller Manju, who comes in with his expertise ' a completely desi fight set in the middle of the Dasara crowd. All these fights are total edge-of-the-seat entertainers,' explains Mahesh.