Film sets can't replicate the spirit of real locations: Director Rohit

For his upcoming film Ekka, starring Yuva Rajkumar and Sanjana Anand, director Rohit Padaki made a clear choice: to ground the movie in the raw reality of Bengaluru’s busiest streets rather than the controlled environment of sets. “Sets can never compete with what real locations can provide. There’s an air of reality in every frame that you simply can’t get from a set,” says the director. To achieve this level of authenticity, the film’s team adopted a focused strategy. “We shot in some of Bengaluru’s busiest areas, like Shivaji Nagar, where we hid our cameras and filmed the scene; we wanted to make it look as real as possible. This method involved rehearsing scenes like theatre artistes, then moving to the actual locations for hidden-camera shoots. Nearly 30-40% of the film has been shot in this manner,” he reveals. Excerpts from a chat:

‘KANNADA CINEMA IS DRIVEN BY A METROPOLITAN CULTURE’
“A metropolitan culture of filmmaking is taking over,” laments Rohit. He emphasises that for movies to truly succeed, the focus needs to shift back to strong writing, particularly one that embraces the “native element which connects us to our roots.” The director points to other regional industries as examples. “Take a look at Tamil or Malayalam movies; even though some of them are larger than life, they are still rooted in their culture. This connection is largely missing in Kannada cinema today because of the metropolitan culture of filmmaking, in most cases.”

‘WE TOOK ON A CHALLENGE TO FINISH THE MOVIE IN NINE MONTHS’
Rohit adds that he found a unique advantage in a largely fresh team and an ambitious production timeline. “Around 80 per cent of the crew and cast were new. It was a good experience working with them because everyone was very hungry for success. We took on a challenge to finish the movie, from start to finish, in nine months. I didn’t want to waste too much time working on one movie,” he explains.