Exclusive! Avinash Divakar’s directorial debut is a period fantasy drama called Rudrankusha

Actor-art director Avinash Divakar, the grandson of late comedian Narasimharaju, has been harbouring dreams of turning filmmaker for a while. His brother, SD Arvinda, has already taken the plunge with films like Last Bus and Mataash. And now, Avinash is set to follow suit. Yesterday, on the occasion of his birthday, Avinash released the title teaser of his forthcoming project, Rudrankusha, which will be produced by MN Kumar, in association with Yogesh Kumar and D Elephants Art. “Much as I wanted to turn director, I don’t think I was prepared earlier, even though I have been in the industry for over a decade. Now, the time seems right to take the plunge,” he says.

The title, explains Avinash, is a combination of the lead character’s name, Rudra and Ankusha, a sharp instrument used by mahouts to inflict pain on elephants and keep them in check. “Rudrankusha is a period fantasy fiction drama, which follows the tale of Rudra, a mahout, who becomes the commander-in-chief of the military animals of the kingdom. How he goes on to become more powerful than the king is what the film is all about,” says Avinash, who has co-written the script with Manohar, adding, “This is not exactly like Game of Thrones, but on the lines of it.”

The film, which will go on floors shortly, what with Avinash having promised the first teaser to be out on July 24, will be made on a big scale. Since animals are involved in the story and permissions from the welfare board may be hard to come by, will there be a lot of visual effects? “As an artist and art director, I want to keep the visual effects to a minimum, because it won’t look good unless well executed. The plan is to design and shoot the film in such a way that we don’t need much graphic work. We will be erecting some sets to create the specific era the story is set in, but beside that we are looking at shooting at, say, the Elephant camp near the Guruvayur temple or the Dubare camp in Madikeri; both of which are subject to receiving relevant permissions. Since temples in south India are known to house elephants, we may look at some of them also as options. Of course, we will not be able to capture everything using real pachyderms, so a few robotic ones will also be created. A lion and a pig may be done completely in graphics, but everything else should be real,” he explains.

Avinash, who has been working on the pre-production of the Rudrankusha for a while, also tells us that he’s designed and planned the schedules to precision. “As a team, we know what’s going into the teaser, trailer and the full film, so, we will shoot only what is required for that – nothing more, nothing less. We are looking at shooting the film in 112 days, with 140-150 minutes of final run-time for the film,” he says matter-of-fact. What about the cast? “We are still in the process of finalizing names and should have more information in the coming days,” he adds. But is he acting, “Uhm… well, that’s not been decided yet, but things could change in the last minute,” he signs off.