Ondalla Eradalla is a tale of a young boy and his lost cow

In filmi circles, it may seem surprising when a producer, who is known to work with A-list stars on big-budget projects, backs a relatively smaller movie. But that is the direction that S

Umapathi

is looking at taking with his banner, DN Cinemas. “Umapathi Films will continue to make big-budget films, while DN Cinemas will solely cater to smaller, content-oriented projects,” he explains.
“Sudeep introduced me to director D Satya Prakash, and I had to know how he went about making

Rama Rama Re

. He said that he took four years to put it together, as finances were a problem and he had to eventually get his friends to pool in the `60 lakh he needed to make the film,” says Umapathi.
Umapathi adds, ‘I wondered why Satya didn’t try to get a producer on board, to which he said that he first wanted to prove himself as a filmmaker before asking someone else to invest in him. I liked that attitude and asked him if we could collaborate. He didn’t immediately respond, but when he did, he narrated the story of a Muslim family, whose livelihood is a cow. The wicked humour in the subject intrigued me because in today’s day and age putting a Muslim and a cow together can end in catastrophe.”
But then, Satya took eight months only to finish the script, which took the producer by surprise, as he was used to having people deliver in just days. “All that Satya said was that unlike others, who take ‘inspiration’ from multiple films to write their stories, he relies solely on his personal experiences and imagination to come up with a narrative,” he says.
The final product,

Ondalla Eradalla

, hits theatres today and explores the story of young Sameera, played by Rohith Pandavapura, as he goes in search of the family’s lost cow, Bhanu, and ends up in a city.
In fact, the story, adds Satya, is a continuation of the popular Kannada folk tale Punyakoti, in which a cow when attacked by a tiger, pleads to be allowed to go home, feed its calf and return. The tiger doesn’t think the cow will come back, but it does. “The screenplay of Ondalla Eradalla is inspired from this tale, wherein the calf comes looking for the mother and what could transpire in its journey to be reunited with her,” says Satya.