Goli Soda celebrates the spirit of adolescence

The Kannada film Goli Soda, which is a remake of the Tamil film of the same name, hits screens today. The film, which has been produced by Praveen Kolla and Hemanth Kumar for Kolla Entertainment, is about a group of teenage boys 'played by Sahidev Vikram Lagadapati, Hemanth S, Shilay Manjunath and Chandan ' who work in KR Market in Bengaluru, their lives there, and what happens to them after an incident forces them apart. We speak to Vikram and the film's director, Raghu Jaya, about the reasons to watch the film.* The film captures the spirit of adolescence ' the sense of rebellion and fearlessness that comes with the impulsiveness seen in kids that age. 'Our characters are like that, especially when it comes to protecting something that they hold dear, like their identities and the hotel they work at,' says Vikram.* Veteran actress Thara also has an important role in the film ' that of a supervisor of sorts and a mother figure to the boys. The actress herself has said that it is one of the most important roles of her career, and Vikram has said that her performance helped him and the other boys portray their roles better. 'We learnt a lot from the way she expresses her emotions, and that also made it easy for us to react to them for the camera,' says Vikram.* Another talking point about the film is its music, says Raghu. 'The story of Goli Soda is the same as its Tamil original, but the songs by Rajesh Ramanathan and Sai Karthik are quite different. They have been composed with a very local vibe that Kannada audiences will connect with,' he says.* There is also a special number titled Rangu Rangu Rangeela, which is picturized on Ragini Dwivedi, something that the actress said she was happy to do because this is the first time that she's worked on a children's film. This song is another point of differentiation between this film and its Tamil original because the latter featured a life-size cutout of an actress, and not a real-life heroine.