PremiumAgnyathavasi director Janardhan Chikkanna: After Gultoo, I was clueless about what to do next
Agnyathavasi is Janardhan’s second film, although, in order of release, it has now become his third. The film will be in theatres on April 11
Last Updated: 10.42 PM, Apr 03, 2025
Kannada filmmaker Janardhan Chikkanna made quite an impression in industry circles and among audiences with his debut film Gultoo, a cybercrime-based film with Naveen Shankar in the lead. Following the success of Gultoo , Janardhan says that he was clueless for a while about what to do next. He had a couple of ideas, but they did not pan out.
Then, during the pandemic, he came across the story of Agnyathavasi from its writer, Krishna Raju, and he was fascinated by three main elements. “For starters, the way the screenplay was designed; second, the method of killing and, finally, the motive behind the murder. These 3 elements felt very fresh for the thriller genre, which excited me,” says Janardhan, who then took the story to his pal, filmmaker Hemanth M Rao. As luck would have it, Hemanth also liked the story and asked me who I would like to see in the film and the first name that came to mind was that of Rangayana Raghu,” says Janardhan.
The veteran actor, according to the filmmaker, is a goldmine of talent, where with each excavation, he unearths new facets of his acting. As for the film’s heroine, Pavana Gowda, Janardhan admits that she was not the first choice and that he had auditioned several other actresses before zeroing in on her. “There is a monologue in the film, which we asked everyone that auditioned to act out and Pavana’s was the best,” he says.
As for the story of Agnyathavasi, Janardhan says that it is set in a quaint village of Malnad in 1997. The local police station there, has been operational for 25 years, never once registering any crime, so much so that the officers live like the rest of the residents of the area. Then, in 97, for the first-time ever, a murder is reported, and the narrative follows how the officers, who have had no experience whatsoever in solving crime, set about to find out who is behind the killing.