Exclusive! 'Don't believe in pan-India concept, I want to make movies for my people': Challenging Star Darshan

It wouldn't untrue to call Darshan Thoogudeepa the last-standing Kannada superstar. While the industry boasts many superstars who carry the same amount of clout as Darshan does, the pan-India phenomenon has certainly nudged the narrative in a different direction. That is to say that as much as Yash, Kiccha Sudeep and the likes are significant entities of Kannada Cinema, their recent successes have helped them find nationwide recognition and as a result, one sees opportunities from other industries, too, beckoning to them. And with Real Star Upendra potentially joining the club with Kabzaa, Darshan remains the true-blue, bona fide KANNADA superstar, so to speak.

So, what does this mean to the Challenging Star? As someone who has consistently maintained that he wants to make films essentially for the people of Karnataka, would he be willing to pay heed to the audience's demands with more sincerity now? And with the pan-Indian movement being more prevalent today than ever, would he be open to trying something new to please his vast fan base?

"See, I don't believe in this pan-India concept. First of all, if you want to make a pan-India film, then you must pick a subject that has nationwide relevance. A film is a means to form a connection between the audience and an artist and the reason we have picked the issue of government schools in Kranti is that it connects all of us here in Karnataka. But if you were to consider Delhi, government schools are operating really well and education is being provided free of cost so my film's subject isn't particularly relevant to the people there. So, can I categorize Kranti as a 'pan-Indian' film? That is the reason I don't desire all this pan-India stuff - I am good here and I want to continue making films for my people. It doesn't really matter what subjects I pick, as long as my films are liked by the people of Karnataka, I am happy," says Darshan.

"If that were to be the case, then I would have delivered 55 hits back-to-back! A hit or a flop is never in our hands because you would have put in the same kind of effort in either case but one can't point out what the audience specifically likes about a film. All you can do is try and continue the good work, hopefully offer them something new every time - the subject of government schools, too, has been dealt with in many films of the past but there is a novelty about the way we have narrated the same story. In short, I can't ask people to come and watch something they have already seen. And when it comes to my performance, I leave that to the director - for instance, my character in Roberrt had so many facets that we chose to not give away everything in the teasers or trailers. At first, the audience felt that we had actually revealed all the shades of the character but they didn't know that I carry a stammer until they watched the film in theatres. So, that was the novelty factor there: when the audience did see the film, they found something new about my performance. Roberrt was a commercial film by all means but it had a lot of scope for performance as well," adds Darshan.

Darshan will be next seen in Kranti alongside Rachita Ram, Sumalatha Ambareesh, V. Ravichandran and others. The film, which releases on January 26th, is directed V. Harikrishna and produced by Shylaja Nag and B. Suresha of Media House Studio.