Shubhamangala teaser: Debutant Santhosh Gopal’s film explores love, relationships and a wedding

Debutant filmmaker Santhosh Gopal was gearing up to release his film, Shubhamangala, in 2020, shortly after premiering it at the Bengaluru International Film Festival, when the pandemic halted that plan. More than two years later, Santhosh is now gearing up to bring his film with audiences and has just released a teaser.

Produced by Avyakta Films as a crowdfunded project, Shubhamangala, which gets its title from a popular Puttanna Kanagal Film, stars Meghana Gaonkar, Hitha Chandrashekar, Siddhartha Madhyamika, Rakesh Maiya, Deepthi Nagendra, Aditi Ram, Gopalkrishna Deshpande, Bindu Raxidi, Aruna Balraj, Babu Hiranyya, Ila Veeramalla, Sumukha R Bharadwaj, Hari Samashti, Anirudh Acharya, Vijay Chendoor, Ram Manjjonaath, Trupti Kulkarni, Srinivas Prabhu, Vidhya Murthy, Prashanth Natana and Keerthi Venkatesh, among others. The film has cinematography by Rakesh B Raj and music by Judah Sandhy.

In earlier interactions with the media, prior to the screening of Shubhamangala at Biffes, Santhosh had said that his film revolves around the high-drama action that takes place in a span of 12 hours at a wedding venue and explores marriage in Indian society. The film is also a compilation of five short stories about love, lust, children and the elderly, which form the sub-plots of this tale. The first look poster of the film was revealed last year by Rakshit Shetty. According to Santhosh, Kannada audiences will relate to most of the events in the film, which are commonly seen at a wedding choultry. The film, he says, will appeal to audiences of all age groups.

Shubhamangala will mark the first post pandemic release for both Meghana and Hitha who were last seen in Kalidasa Kannada Meshtru and Premier Padmini, respectively. Although Shubhamangala is named after a popular 1975, Santhosh has been quoted as saying that the only other similarity with Puttanna’s classic is the emotions involved in the tale, which revolves around relationships.