Aachar & Co’s Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy on why she’s got a newbie cast onboard

If you’ve seen the trailer of the upcoming Kannada film Aachar & Co and wondered where you’ve seen most of the actors before, chances are that you won’t find too many answers. The film, produced by Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar for PRK Productions, has been directed by Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy, for who this is only her fourth as an actor and first as a filmmaker. Barring veteran actors Ashok and Sudha Belawadi, the rest of the cast largely comprises talent from theatre, some of who are rank newbies, while others have a few film roles to their credit. Aachar & Co’s cast is relatively unknown to Kannada film aficionados and that, says Sindhu, is what works for the film.

Speaking about Aachar & Co’s casting during a recent Twitter space conversation with a Puneeth Rajkumar fan page, the actor-filmmaker explained, “As someone from a theatre background, I am aware of the abundance of talent waiting for an opportunity to make the transition to cinema. Since I knew a lot of theatre artistes, I had told Puneeth sir and Ashwini ma’am that I would prefer to cast such actors. They were very supportive. In fact, the six-minute showreel I had done about the film had a bunch of theatre artistes in it. Puneeth sir was quite impressed with the acting prowess he saw. So, we thought that this film could be a good platform, not only for technicians, but for actors too to shine.”

Her affinity for theatre artistes aside, Sindhu has a far more valid reason for casting new faces in her film. Aachar & Co, she states, is not hero or heroine driven; it is about a family and their 10 children. In such a set-up, she reckons that if she had a big star on the cast, the attention would get diverted to him/her. The problem with stars, she says, is that it is not easy to look past the image and see him/her as a character. "My contention was that if you have as many new faces as possible, the likelihood of the characters coming across as far more relatable was higher. The idea was to have audiences see their siblings/family members in the characters onscreen. Aachar & Co is a film that was best suited for newcomers than star faces,” she explains.