Ayyana Mane director Ramesh Indira: I wrote the show to make a name and open doors to a new platform for Kannada content

When director-actor Ramesh Indira was given the responsibility of writing and directing Zee5’s first original Kannada web series, Ayyana Mane, there wer e certain limitations within which he had to plan it. First, of course, was that given that the platform has been investing heavily on content from other languages, the budgetary allocation for Kannada was quite limited. And second, the platform was not keen on a pure family drama and was leaning towards a thriller as their first presentation.

It took Ramesh about a week to come up with a basic plot, and instead of fleshing it out into a full-fledged script then, he focused on getting the first episode ready, including the screenplay and dialogues, which he then presented to the Zee5 management, along with a synopsis of the story, and got the green signal to proceed with production. He then developed the rest of the screenplay, which was also to their liking, including suspense and eerie elements, cliffhangers, etc.

A prolific TV serial maker, how has Premiere Padmini maker Ramesh given the series a different stamp? “One thing that I was very clear during the writing process was that no matter the scale of production or the star cast, if the content is not strong, audiences will not watch it. Whatever you write, the very first line should hook the audience and they will look forward to what plays out thereafter. Instead, if you devote time to premise and character building, you will lose your audience. What you need is a simple story with complex characters; you can’t reverse this,” explains Ramesh.

Ramesh Indira: There was a clear vision in taking up Ayyana Mane

Having said that, Ramesh adds that no matter what, there will be comparisons between his earlier work for TV and the new show and he is prepared for the feedback that is bound to come his way next week. “When it comes to a certain genre and budgetary aspects and that this platform has not ventured into the Kannada web series space, it was not only Shruti Naidu and Ramesh Indira who were approached for the job. There were n number of people who were approached and no one took up the responsibility. And this is not because they can’t do it; instead, it was about the limited budget available to execute the show,” he adds.

Shruti, says Ramesh, decided to take up the challenge, even if she does not make any money out of it. “Our clear vision was to try and make a name and open doors to a new platform for Kannada content. I am also an actor and am acutely aware of the current slump of Kannada cinema, with ever falling footfalls. Let’s say, the platform engages different teams to create 1 series per month, this would mean that 50-60 people will find employment for a few months per show,” he says.

Ayyana Mane, elaborates Ramesh, is now a 6-episode show, that follows events in a family, which appears to be under a curse of sorts, what with the daughters-in-law perishing under strange circumstances. When a new bride makes her way into this home and begins to dig into the deaths in the family, what she finds out forms the crux of the show. Ramesh has kept each episode to around 18-20 minutes, with stars like Manasi Sudhir, Anirudh Acharya, Vijay Shobraj, Kushee Ravi, Akshay Nayak of Olavina Nildana fame, Archana Kottige, Hitha and Kushi Chandrashekar, among others on the cast. The show drops on Zee5 on April 25.