Prithvi Konanur is targeting collegians as audience for his next, Hadinelentu

When Prithvi Konanur decided to line up release plans for his film Hadinelentu for the last week of January, he thought he had only two other movies to contend with, as per a ticket aggregating site. But after he announced that his film would be in theatres on January 26, several others joined in, making it a very crowded long-weekend at the box office. Prithvi, though is not backing out – he and his team have decided to soldier on and have even begun promotional activities on a small scale. They are going to colleges and talking to students about the film. “I do not know how much of this will result in conversion to tickets, but we are doing our bit,” the filmmaker tells us, during a break on one of these trips. “For Pinki Elli? we had done absolutely no promotions, which reflected in the theatrical footfalls. There was no organic reach, which we are trying to achieve for Hadinelentu,” He adds.

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Hadinelentu was meant to be in theatres in June last year, but Prithvi had pushed it ahead. The filmmaker is acutely aware that a theatrical outing is not the best option for his brand of cinema. His last, Pinki Elli? had 4-5 people each in the handful of theatres he managed to get for it. Festival darlings like his movies are meant for OTT consumption, but with platforms only considering those with a theatrical outing, favourable reviews, and, ideally, good box office track record also, it is difficult for filmmakers like Prithvi to get their movies to audiences.

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The film, meanwhile, is about two teenagers, a boy from an upper-class affluent family and a girl from the lower strata of society, who make a sex tape that gets leaked. What happens, thereafter, in terms of the handling of the issue from the perspective of gender, social and religious strata differences is what Hadinelentu is all about. The cast of Hadinelentu includes Sherlyn Bhosale, Neeraj Matthew, Rekha Kudligi, Bhavani Prakash, Ravi Hebballi, Nagendra Shaa and others.