Debutant director Yoganand Muddan on Adhyaksha in America

Theatre has been a weakness for Yoganand Muddan for as long as he can remember. Bringing a story alive on stage fascinated him, so much so that writing for the medium and directing his plays became a common feature of his growing-up years, both in school and college. Soon enough, TV beckoned and Yoganand began writing and assisting on serials. “I must have worked on at least 18 series over the years, but the problem with that was that I felt that it was stifling my creativity. TV series tend to follow a certain tangent and depending on TRPs, channels expect you to follow that, which becomes very limiting as a writer and when you are doing this for multiple serials at the same time, you feel it all the more. In fact, there came a point when I was seriously contemplating giving it up and relooking my focus area, when actor Girish Shivanna came to me with a proposition — to write dialogues for a portion of choreographer-director A Harsha’s

Birugaali

,” says Yoganand.

That attempt, though, became a turning point for him, as Harsha took a liking to his writing and asked Yoganand to pen the dialogues for the entire film, while also assisting him in direction. “It got the ball rolling for me. In the years since, I have worked on 11 other films, both as dialogue writer and co-director. The plan, though, has always been to turn to direction and I was working on a script when actor Sharan called with a request to pen dialogues for an upcoming project,” he says.
Sharan, adds Yoganand, had been trying to get him onboard his projects since Raambo — the film that propelled him to hero status — but for various reasons, they were never able to collaborate. “So, when he called me again, I did not want to say no. I was told that it was the remake of the Malayalam hit

Two Countries

, and that the team was still on the lookout for someone to direct it. Thinking that I had time to begin work, I proceeded on a trip to Dharmasthala, when they called me again asking if I could direct it as well. Although beginning my directorial innings with a remake was not part of my plan, I did not refuse the offer, considering that I was on holy ground and seeking divine blessings. I looked at it as an omen — a sign of good things to come,” says Yoganand.
The film,

Adhyaksha in America

, has Ragini Dwivedi in the lead along with Sharan. And it was shot predominantly in America, as the title suggests. “Although, we have called it Adhyaksha in America, it has nothing to do with Sharan’s earlier film, Adhyaksha. We have only ensured that his characterisation here is similar in treatment. Also, even though it is officially a remake, all that we have done is retain the soul of the story, while embellishing it with elements that make sense to Kannada audiences, like, for instance, sequences featuring Sharan, as he has a very different disposition, body language and dialogue delivery style, compared to Dileep, who was in the original,” he signs off.