HD Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil Gowda is ready

For someone from a reputed political family spanning a couple of generations, Nikhil Gowda was expected to follow in their footsteps. But the lad, who is the grandson of former prime minister HD Deve Gowda and son of former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, was determined to forge his own career path. Initially, Nikhil focused on the family media business, until one day, his dad suggested that he get into cinema as an actor.Considering that Kumaraswamy has had a long association with the Kannada film industry as a producer and distributor, Nikhil thought the idea was definitely worth a shot. “From the start, Nikhil has been clear that he does not want to blindly get into the field. He wanted to be prepared for it. The plan to launch him as an actor came about nearly a year ago, but the subsequent months were spent getting Nikhil trained in all aspects required for a career in films,” says executive producer Sunil Gowda, of Channambika Films. Nikhil’s debut film — Jaguar — will be a Kannada-Telugu bilingual. And while his family lineage gives him in edge in Karnataka, there is no denying that Nikhil is a newbie in Tollywood. “Telugu audiences are very welcoming of fresh talent if a film has good content. We are confident of the quality of the story (by Vijendra Prasad) and screenplay (by director Mahadev) we have and, considering that the film is to be made on a massive scale in terms of production values, it just makes better business sense to make a multi-lingual film. The crux of the story is very emotional, but Jaguar will be a complete commercial flick, with drama, fights, songs, dance and rich visuals in terms of hitherto unexplored locations, etc. About 75% of the film will be shot across India, and the rest abroad. A movie like ours cannot break even in a relatively smaller industry like ours, in which you are competing for, say, about 300 screens, when you have the luxury of a couple of thousand screens in Tollywood,” explains Sunil. It is still early days for the team of the film, as they prepare for its muhurat on Wednesday, which is Kumaraswamy’s birthday as well. Core members, like director, cinematographer (Manoj Paramahamsa) and music director (SS Thaman) are in place, but the rest is still a work in progress. “As we get started on our film, we want Nikhil to seek blessings from industry veterans, for which we have organized a felicitation programme. We will also launch a making-of-Nikhil-the-actor video, which chronicles his preparations over the past many months before he faces the arclights,” adds Sunil.