The chemistry of the lead pair in Naanu Ladies' romantic song Sumave is its USP: Shailaja Padindala

Filmmaker Shailaja Padindala’s debut feature offering, Naanu Ladies, which was adjudged the film with the Best LGBTQIA+ theme at this year’s Tasveer South Asian Film Festival, is gearing up for a theatrical release. Shailaja, who has directed and acted in the film, tells us that a date has not be zeroed on, but that she is keen for audiences to see this lesbian love story in movie halls.

In the run-up to presenting her film, Shailaja has begun giving audiences sneak peeks, starting with the romantic number Sumave, a lyrical video of which was released today. The video has glimpses of the lead pair, played by Shailaja and Medini Kelamane, and establishes the chemistry between the two of them. “The chemistry of the lead pair is the coolest part of the song,” says Shailaja, adding, “Sumave is the first Kannada romantic number featuring two women. Sung by Chetan Naik and written by Kiran Kaverappa, the song was set to tune by Sylvester Pradeep and shot across locations in Bengaluru among natural crowds. At the moment, we have only released a lyrical video, but in the film, it will appear as a montage song.” Shailaja adds that working with the team, especially Kiran, on this song was lovely, as he had to write the lyrics for a queer love story without judgement.

Watch the song here: 

In an earlier interaction with us, prior to the film’s outing at Tasveer, Shailaja had said, ““Naanu Ladies is a story that is heavily inspired by my own life experiences, which I have attempted to present in a humorous fashion. I have written, directed and even acted as one of the protagonists. In Indian cinema, more often than not, queer subjects are not treated with the sensitivity they require and border on homophobia or derogatory comedy. There is just so much misrepresentation of the community on reel. In south India, though, there have been attempts like Naanu Avanalla Avalu. Super Deluxe and Awe, for instance, that have not only tried do justice to the community, but also with mainstream actors like Sanchari Vijay, Vijay Sethupathi and Nitya Menen acknowledging queerness. As a queer filmmaker, it is my responsibility to showcase stories from the community in the right light and sensitize society about the importance of inclusivity and treating everyone as equal.”