Daredevil Musthafa director Shashank Soghal: Goal is to get audience to come to theatres in the first week

There's a pleasant sense of novelty and innocence that one encounters with the trailer of Daredevil Musthafa, the upcoming feature film written and directed by Shashank Soghal. Based on the Poornachandra Tejaswi short story of the same name, the trailer unveils the town of Abachuru ( a location immortalized by the legendary author) and its rich quaintness as we are taken into the heart of the story which is predominantly set in a pre-university government college. Through a vibrant ensemble cast that includes several fresh faces along with a few established actors such as Poornachandra Mysore, Mandya Ramesh, Nagabhushana and others, Daredevil Musthafa attempts to draw a colourful portrait of the life of the town, the college and its teenagers whose idyllic and rapturous life is posed with a rather interesting conundrum when a new student named Jamal Abdul Musthafa joins them. 

What's more fascinating is the fact that the film has been produced with a support of a number of Poornachandra Tejaswi fans and readers. The makers were able to employ the enterprising idea of crowd funding and bring more than 70 of Poochante's ardest admirers to collectively fund the project. Daredevil Musthafa is set to release in theatres on May 19.

And as the countdown for the release begins, Shashank and Co. find themselves engrossed in promotions, which they are executing through innovative means. "We have launched Daredevil badges that the public can purchase at the cost of Rs. 50, either through a website or directly from us. Once they make the purchase, they get an email with a digital badge and a coupon code for future use. When they later watch the film in the first week of the theatrical run, which is May 19 to May 25, they can share the screenshot of the ticket, the coupon code and their UPI ID with us for an Rs. 100 cashback. The idea is to reward them for supporting us by turning up to theatres," shares Shashank.

And the first week of the release, he adds, is quite crucial because a lot depends on the audience turnout during this phase for a longer sustained theatrical run. "If we manage to attract crowds during the first week, we warrant more theatrical shows and more number of days at the box office. It's been extremely tough, of late, for Kannada filmmakers to get the public to the theatres because of the whole OTT aspect - many of them feel that a movie could eventually be watched when it arrives on OTT but they do not know that streaming platforms wouldn't purchase our films unless they see good box office results. It's a Catch-22 situation, of sorts, so we are trying our best to get the audience to the theatres in the first week. And most importantly, Daredevil Musthafa is a film conceived for the big screen experience - we have spent over 6 months in sound design alone and have taken several painstaking efforts for each facet of the film," adds Shashank

But the young team can rest slightly assured that popular actor Daali Dhananjaya will be presenting the film in theatres with the reputed KRG Studios distributing it across Karnataka. Shashank Soghal, the debutant, certainly hopes that the ongoing Daredevil badges campaign pays off and manages to attract audiences. "The more badges we sell, the more shows we can accommodate," he says.