Had 'Aa Dinagalu' released today, it would have been a much bigger hit: K.M. Chaitanya

There's no contesting the fact that K.M. Chaitanya's 'Aa Dinagalu' has had a strong impact on Kannada Cinema. Despite being Chaitanya's maiden attempt as a feature filmmaker, there's a discernment apparent behind his perspective which rendered a unique portrait of the yesteryear Bengaluru. The job, however, couldn't have been easy at the time because it entailed a serious task of navigating through Agni Shreedhar's complex screenplay, collaborating with stalwarts like Ilaiyaraaja, Girish Karnad, and employing a slew of talented (and accomplished) actors. So, on the occasion of the 14th anniversary of the release of 'Aa Dinagalu', ETimes Kannada caught up with the man himself to discuss the making of the film, the lead-up story to it, and the legacy it has to its name today. Excerpts:

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It changed a lot, obviously, because people still regard me highly as the 'Aa Dinagalu' director. But not many know that this wasn't my first attempt at making a feature film. Back in 2002, I had written a script with Jayanth Kaykini which was based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' and was to star Shiva Rajkumar in the lead role. Shivanna too had liked the script a lot and a producer from Hyderabad had come forward to fund the film. But, as fate would have it, the producer incurred heavy losses with a Hindi movie he had produced and wasn't in the place to fund my film anymore. So, that project fell through almost immediately.

You see, I am not from the film industry, per se, so when something like this happens, you are abandoned in a way and that's exactly what happened to me. I went about my own ways after that and worked with broadcasting channels like CNN, Doordarshan, and others and directed a few plays too until, almost five years later, Agni Shreedhar sir reached out to me with the script of 'Aa Dinagalu'. I was trying to put a Kannada TV serial together which wasn't working at the time so this offer from Shridhar sir couldn't have come at a better time. And he was generally very encouraging about the prospects, gave me a lot of freedom to make it my way - so, that was another plus.

Image Courtesy: K.M. Chaitanya

Not at all. Like I said, Agni Shreedhar himself gave me a lot of confidence to make the film my own way so things got off on a pretty good note. And my producer too was making his debut with the film and yet he assured me that I needn't worry about the commerce part of it. As far as the actors are concerned, although I was technically making my film debut, a lot of them were my friends from my previous long stint in theatre. I had assisted and worked closely with Girish Karnad for many years because I had assisted him, Atul Kulkarni was a family friend, and Ashish Vidyarthi was quite approachable in the theatre circles so it did not particularly seem daunting to make the film with them.

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Interestingly, Agni Shridhar sir did not want the film to have any songs because he didn't want to bring a halt in the narrative at any point. However, I was of the opinion that there's constant tension in the film and you need a song or two to break it somehow. So, after mulling over things, the two of us decided on getting Ilaiyaraaja sir to do the music - even though the film has only two songs, I wanted them to stand out.

I had been very assertive as a director on the film sets and Agni sir had noticed that about me. But before we met Ilaiyaraaja sir, I remember him telling me "you know it's great that you are so insistent on the sets but this is a legend we are talking about so it's better if you let him make all the decisions". I agreed to doing that and kept things that way for the first two weeks but when it came to a crucial sequence in the film (Kotwal's death scene), I felt that the background score wasn't serving the film in the rgiht manner. However, citing Agni sir's previous advice, I kept my head down and nodded a yes when Raaja sir asked me how I liked it. But he saw that I wasn't happy or satisfied so he implored me into confessing that I didn't want the scene to be executed like that.

You see, the story may have been set in the underworld milieu but I never wanted the violence of it all to be glorified. So, for that Kotwal scene, the background music would have intensified things but it would have also certainly glorified the violence - and when I said the same to Ilaiyaraaja sir, he was impressed and even said that while most filmmakers ask for more music to be added, I was asking him to remove stuff here!

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Yes and no but I must say that the whole idea was conceived by Agni Shridhar sir and I came in much later. It was based on his own book Daadagiriya Dinagalu and he knew practically everything about the world we were trying to create. At the same time, I am true-blue Bengaluru guy and I love my city - right from the time a school kid, I was fascinated by the underworld and the stuff you get to read in newspapers so I had all the clippings of Jayaraj and others with me because I had keenly followed it all. And also, a film like this is never just about the underworld but also about the politics, the economics, and the society at large so my attempt was to discuss the city on a large canvas. I had really liked how Mani Ratnam had rendered 'Pallavi Anu Pallavi' so I wanted a unique approach here too.

Image Courtesy: K.M. Chaitanya

I am still recognized in most places as the guy who made 'Aa Dinagalu'. There have been a few occasions when I was stopped by cops for something and when I tell them my name, they'd connect me to the film instantly and end up bearing a smile. And very recently, I came across something interesting on social media where people were debating about the quality of Kannada cinema in the recent years. I came across a comment from a fan who asked the rest of them if they had watched 'Aa Dinagalu' or not, and when the others replied with a "no", she would ask them to watch it right away. So, that sums up the legacy of the film for me because it has been revered by Kannadigas all along and I feel that it's going to remain this way for many years to come.

Also, in hindsight, I can tell you that not every film can be made like the way 'Aa Dinagalu' was made. There was a novelty factor to it because we were stepping away from the mainstream space and also challenging it at the same time. And the times were different too - there were hardly any multiplexes around and social media didn't exist at all. So, I reckon that if the film had released today, it would have certainly been a much bigger hit.

Image Courtesy: K.M. Chaitanya

Perhaps, yes, because I had to leave out some portion from the final cut so if given a chance, I would probably include those scenes. And if I am asked to do a film on the same subject today, I would love to take it up but instead of a period setting, I would choose to set in the modern world. See, every period film talks about the contemporary society more than the period in question itself so it would be very interesting to trace Bengaluru's story today, in the current era.

Image Courtesy: K.M. Chaitanya