Every frame of Urvi will be like a painting: Pradeep Varma

Those who been following developments about the upcoming Kannada film Urvi would have noticed one thing in particular — the colour schemes and visual backdrops utilized in every frame. And for the trained eye, it would be even more intriguing, because director BS Pradeep Varma and his cinematographer Anand Sundaresha (both alumni of the Chitrakala Parishath) treated the entire film like a series of paintings.“Even though I knew Andy (as he calls Anand) from our college days, for a long time I was unaware that he had moved on to doing cinematography. I approached him, wondering if he would be willing to work with me, and we did a short film called Chakori, which won a few awards. We did a series of shorts and documentaries, but our goal was to make a feature-length film, which we have now done with Urvi,” says Pradeep.
Both Pradeep and Anand wanted to showcase their art background in the making of the film, and when discussing scene compositions, their conversations were in terms of artistic references. “Andy and I looked at every sequence in the film as a different painting, paying tribute to the master artists. For instance, I would tell him, ‘Let’s create a Caravaggio frame, or something like Van Gogh’s Potato Eaters, or a Rembrandt or Da Vinci’s Last Supper’. It was never about doing a key sketch or a storyboard for reference. Our colour scheme and lighting patterns reflect those paintings,” explains the filmmaker.