I see my role in cinema today as someone who creates opportunities: Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar

This October marks three years since the untimely passing of Kannada star Puneeth Rajkumar and in this time, one person who has stood out strong, despite her own personal grief is his wife Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar. “I have been extremely busy, and I am glad to be so because it keeps me completely occupied,” says Ashwini, who has balanced her responsibility of bringing up her two daughters along with executing the projects that both Ashwini and Puneeth had begun earlier. “Now, the difference is that all the responsibilities are on me. Every day is a new day, every day brings with it its own challenges. However, I must admit here that I am enjoying my work. It is now a good phase,” she says. While Ashwini tells us that till date, the films that she has worked on are all projects that had her husband’s approval, her experience over the past two years have given her the confidence and zeal to take new decisions. “We are gearing up to work on one of our biggest commercial films yet, with Yuva Rajkumar playing the lead. I am excited, but also nervous, as the toughest aspect about this is to make the right decisions,” she says. More from the conversation:

‘Taking the final call, all by myself is still challenging’We have had the same team working with us here since day one. Yet, making decisions on my own, and taking that final call continues to be challenging. The movies we have released till now were all approved by Appu. We were yet to go on floors with Achaar & Co., when everything as we knew it changed. Whether to go ahead with the execution or not, was my call. It was a huge decision considering it was an all-women’s team too. I was unsure if I was doing the right thing, but then again, I wanted to see whether it was going to work, and it did work brilliantly, and I am happy about that. The next chapter - as in, the movies that we will work on and release from now on, is going to be entirely my call. I am keeping my fingers crossed. It is very scary. Right now, I am working on the script and details for Yuva. He is the next promising talent from our family. I am also looking at scripts to work on the following year. I read or hear at least two to three scripts every week and I hope to be able to make at least two or three films every year.
‘We definitely need more women in cinema’There is a certain sense of comfort when you see more women on the set. That happened with Achaar & Co. I loved the entire process. We have had some great women directors here over the decades. But we do not see enough technicians who are women. I believe it has always been tough for women to break in. It is not something alien to the Kannada film industry – if it was then, there would have been a lot more female technicians on the sets in other language film industries as well. The situation should change and let’s hope that it does. As far as safety of women in the workplace goes, I feel this is a reality that women across the world deal with. It is not something exclusive to the film industry. Every day is a challenge for women, irrespective of what profession they choose for themselves. Women are not safe anywhere in the world. However, so are children or the elderly for instance. We need a safe environment for all. Being in my position, as a leader, I see my role in cinema today as someone who creates opportunities. I believe there is enough room for everyone. I feel women should support each other to create fresh opportunities – to ask, to be heard, to be seen and to learn.

‘The Film industry has evolved and will continue to evolve’With the exposure to world cinema, and the passion among so many talented newcomers to present fresh perspectives on stories, I feel we have a great deal more to explore. We are in more challenging times of late, where we do not have OTT platforms buying Kannada films. Only lately, films like Bheema and Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi have helped bring people back to the theatres to some extent. We also have experimental films making an impact in the minds of audiences. I find that there are a lot of talented newcomers here and what we need to be able to do is present them with the right channels and opportunities

‘I hope to be recognised for making good, content-driven films’Earlier, I was most happy to be behind the scenes. However, today, I participated in a lot more events and functions. I do this because of the goodwill that I know people have for Appu. So many people tell me that they see Appu in me, and I know that is genuine. Because of that, I am a bit more recognised in public, as my face is out there. Though, that has never stopped me from stepping out for a coffee at a café or at a darshini or any such thing. People do not really bother me that much and I am grateful for all the love. I spend a lot of time with my nephews and daughters, talking about new content, new cinema, about shows we have watched, discussing characterisations and reviewing them. They offer me a whole new perspective. When I hear that there is a good film out, I watch it at home or catch it at the cinema hall. As a filmmaker, I just want to make films, and I hope that I am recognised for making such good content-driven films. While Achaar & Co did well, I don’t want to take credit for that. I have a long way to go, and I hope to have and make use of the opportunities to make such movies.

‘I am proud to say that my mother-in-law was the most successful female film producer in the world’My mother-in-law, Parvathamma Rajkumar, stopped working the year Appu and I got married. She was just waiting for her sons to settle down before retiring. So I have not watched her work really, but from what I have heard from Appu, my in-laws and from herself, is that she always spoke of cinema like it was family. She spoke of the time when writers, music directors, technicians, actors etc would be together to discuss the film they were working on for days and months on end. She would read a lot of novels and would always go by her gut feeling on whether a story would work as a film or not. They made only family-oriented films back then, and it is amazing to note that 95 percent of the films she took up were blockbuster hits. She was a woman producer that I can proudly say was the most successful one in the entire world.