Kapata Nataka Sutradhari meant only for audiences with the intellect to form an opinion of their own
Writer, director and actor Dhiraj MV’s debut film is a new-age political satire that revolves around the aftermath of a Muslim guy’s predicament in a temple
Last Updated: 09.29 PM, Jun 20, 2025
Debutant filmmaker-actor Dhiraj MV is set to bring his maiden Kannada feature film, Kapata Nataka Sutradhari to theatres on July 4, ahead of which he revealed its trailer on June 19. The film, he had said, is a new-age political satire, in which he plays an overweight visitor to a temple in Karnataka, who tries out the ritual of crawling under a stone statue of an elephant to get his wish fulfilled, but ends up getting stuck. It then emerges that he’s a Muslim and what follows is society’s reaction to the situation.
Kapata Nataka Sutradhari not for everyone
Dhiraj is clear that he has a target audience for his film and says that Kapata Nataka Sutradhari is not for everyone. “My film is only for those people who have the intellect, social awareness and sense to frame their own opinion on a lot of things in society. It’s only for those who can take a stand on issues and, hence, I’d say, my film is not for everyone,” he states.
The engineer-turned-filmmaker, who has assisted the late Guruprasad and Sunil Kumar Desai, says that the emotional highs and the intellectual humour will land well only with the audience he has in mind, as the story was designed for them. Dhiraj adds that Kapata Nataka Sutradhari may seem complicated, but that it is actually quite simple. It is the first-of-its kind narrative in the Indian film space, he adds.
As for the highlights of the film, Dhiraj says that the scale of the film is quite big for a debut, with at least 100-200 artistes and just as many crew members on set at any point of time. Visually also, the film is quite rich, he adds, explaining that the entire shoot was done at a historical location, with no sets involved. The temple, which is where most of the action unfolds is also an actual one. “The focus was on providing production value for audiences,” he says.