Natesh Hegde’s much-acclaimed Kannada film, Pedro, will get its India premier at the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival

Young filmmaker Natesh Hegde’s debut feature presentation, Pedro, which has travelled the world at various international film festivals, is now heading into its home run. The film, which has been widely feted and gotten Natesh Best Director nods too, is a Rishab Shetty production, and is beginning its India festival round now.

Pedro has been selected as part of the India Gold competition section of the 22nd MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, which is being held in the online mode from February 24 to March 16. The film will compete against A Night of Knowing Nothing, Adh Chanani Raat, Bela, Dhuin, Dug Dug, Fire in the Mountains, Invisible Demons, Ladies Only, Nine Hills One Valley, Once Upon a Time in Calcutta, Shankar’s Fairies, The Cloud Messenger and Two Friends.

While the official site of the festival does not list a screening date for Pedro yet, films will be available to watch online for free by registering on online.mumbaifestival.com. Some films will be available to watch from 12 noon on February 24, with each being available to audiences for 48 hours.

The film, which stars Natesh’s father Gopal Hegde as the title character Pedro, had got its international debut at the Busan International Film Festival, making it the first Kannada feature to be at the fest. Before heading to Busan, Natesh had spoken to us, saying, “Pedro is a simple story of a small-town electrician, who commits a crime and follows how society reacts to the fact and the circumstances surrounding it. What he does to be accepted by these people again, forms the crux of the story. The problem with film festivals is that movies screened tend to get dubbed arthouse projects that are not seen as commercially viable for a theatrical outing. We are trying to bust this concept and that a film like Pedro can also be screened in a theatre. But for that, we need to drum up enough publicity for it by being at prestigious film festivals.”

So, now that Pedro is doing the festival circuit in India, we guess it won’t be long before Rishab Shetty helps Natesh bring it to theatres too.