PremiumThe moment Rangayana Raghu agreed to do Shakhahaari, director Sandeep Sunkad knew he had a winner
Last Updated: 05.41 PM, Feb 17, 2024
On February 16, as many as 10-11 Kannada films released in theatres, but there was one that stood out in particular – Shakhahaari, by debutant director Sandeep Sunkad. A crime thriller, Shakhahaari revolves around the hunt for a murder suspect who takes refuge in a small-time restaurant run by Subbanna Bhat, played by Rangayana Raghu, with Gopalkrishna Deshpande filling in as the cop who is hot in pursuit of the fugitive.
For Sandeep, the choice of genre boiled down to it being in trend currently, but more importantly because the story was not just a crime thriller, but also has emotions at play as well. The excitement of doing something new within a trending genre is what drove him, says Sandeep, for whom working with Rangayana Raghu was a fan boy moment. The filmmaker adds that the moment the veteran actor agreed to do his film, he knew he had a winner at hand, provided he did justice to the execution of the subject.
Sandeep explains that he wanted only Raghu for the role of Subbanna Bhat, because it is a character with multiple variations, most of which had to be conveyed in silence - through his body language and expressions and not the spoken word. This would be possible only with an actor of Raghu’s calibre, reckoned the filmmaker, adding that the actor gave him far more than he expected in the execution of the character.
Shakhahaari, says Sandeep, is also a film that does not offer much of a visual landscape, as the story plays out mostly at Subbanna’s restaurant or in a police station. Given this, while cutting the trailer, the filmmaker had to make sure that he introduces his characters to audiences and maybe even give them a glimpse of the story, without giving away too much.