Yogaraj Bhat gives a twist to a fable

A Yogaraj Bhat film tends to evoke intrigue among audiences, given his presentation of societal issues in a philosophical manner laced with humour, songs that are mostly chartbusters and more. His release this week, Panchatantra, produced by Yogaraj Cinemas, JASP Productions and Purple Patch Entertainment, is a film that he is bullish about. “There are very few films that have the power to become public property for audiences to feel a sense of ownership. I believe

Panchatantra

has that power. The subject is an offshoot of the fable The

Tortoise

and the

Hare

, the moral of which was ‘Slow and steady wins the race’. There is a race in the film that pits a gang of oldies against youngsters. While you would expect the oldies to win, the youngsters do, but with a twist that has the other group emerge victorious too. But how and why? This and more will be answered in the film,” says Yogaraj.
The film has been produced by two of his long-time associates, Hariprasad Jayanna and Hemanth Paradkar. “I turned producer for Panchatantra because finding funding for a film with newcomers is never easy. I also thought that the subject deserved to be told on the big screen and the fact that a motor race would be featured prominently in a Kannada film intrigued me,” says Hariprasad.
“I have worked on a lot of scripts with Yogaraj for four years, so when he called me to associate on Panchatantra, there was no second thought. The story was good, but I was skeptical about picturising a race for

Kannada cinema

, because we had no reference and no idea of motor sports. But things fell in place and it came out beautifully,” says Hemanth.