‘May 1st is a horror tale between an actor and his fan’

Whenever J Karthik speaks about his next release, May 1st, there is a great deal of pride exuding in every word, given that he’s more than just an actor on the film. The film is like a baby to him; he has, after all, written the story, screenplay and dialogues, and been involved in all aspects of its making from start to finish. But just as acting happened by chance to this structural engineer, turning to writing was also not intentional.
“In 2016, I had just finished my stint on the Hindi serial Siya Ke Ram, in which I played Ravan.Once back, I thought I would go back to working in Kannada films, but as the months went by, I realised that was easier said than done, as I didn’t get any offer. For nearly a year and half I had no new work and I am not the kind who can just sit around idle. I then thought, ‘Why not write my own script?’ I had an idea involving an actor and how fans react to them, but I knew that if I were to catalogue only that, it would be too ordinary a tale. It then struck me that giving it a horror spin could make it interesting, and wrote a story in which the fan is a ghost. I called it Fan, but forgot to register the title. By the time I got around to doing it, someone else held the rights to that title. I had to then come up with another title, and figured that if I zero-in on a particular date it would create curiosity. May 1st is my birthday in the film and in real life too. It becomes the day on which a certain incident occurs, which becomes the crux of the tale,” explains JK, as the actor is popularly known.
As someone who had never before written a script and not had great interest in reading, the actor was surprised at how easily the whole process came to him. So much so that he then went on to write the screenplay and dialogues as well. “Once I was done, I wanted to run it by someone from the industry, and the only one that I thought would look at it objectively, without being judgmental was Nagendra Urs, whom I have known for a while. He liked the subject, but suggested that it needed a more commercial approach, for which a few corrections were made. One of this was the inclusion of the songs, which we thought will provide audiences some lighter moments in the horror tale, while also taking the narrative forward,” JK adds.
Now that he has taken baby steps as a writer, the actor is looking at working on this new skill set and is developing other ideas that he has. “Before May 1st, I was actually set to work on a film that I had written, which explored the perils in the fitness industry. As someone who is very particular about personal fitness, I was passionate about the subject, but the producer pulled out after I had prepared physically for the role. That is something that I want to revisit. I will be working on more scripts in the days ahead, as, for some reason, filmmakers here are still reluctant to give me work. After I started May 1st, Dayal Padmanabhan was the only one in Kannada films who recognised my worth and gave me two good roles in his films. I do have a few films in hand in Bollywood, but I have always been partial to Kannada films and want to do good work here” he signs off.