Tom and Jerry hero Nischith says the film’s content will ensure it gets its due at the box office

On November 12, the Kannada film Tom and Jerry, which has Nischith Korodi in the lead, will hit screens. Think he looks familiar? Take off the moustache and imagine a leaner, not so muscular version and there you have it – that’s Madhu from Roopa Rao’s coming-of-age film, Gantumoote. “I actually look the way I do in Tom and Jerry,” says Nischith, adding, “I had to shave and even knock off some weight to get into character for Gantumoote.”

As a student of filmmaker Nagathihalli Chandrashekar’s film institute, Tent Cinemas, Nischith had met Gantumoote director Roopa Rao when she came as guest faculty for a few days. “She had mentioned that she intended to make a film about school students and that she’d get back to me with audition dates. She also asked me to learn technical aspects of filmmaking, which she believed would aid me in acting too, for which I worked as an assistant director on a Telugu film, Love Life & Pakodi. By then, Roopa ma’am was ready to get cracking on her film and called me again to audition and that’s how Gantumoote happened for me,” says the actor.

The offer for his second film, Tom and Jerry, came while Gantumoote was still in theatres, says Nischith. “While taking up my next, I made sure that it was nothing like my debut, lest I get typecast as a romantic hero. My aim is to do roles in a wide variety of genres and Tom and Jerry fit into my scheme of things. This is a film that is high on content and not like the run-of-the-mill commercial flicks,” he says, adding, “The narrative follows the hero Dharma, and the heroine Satya, in a story about the characteristics of both these protagonists. Some of the sequences may seem philosophical, but we have tried presenting it in true commercial style with these two characters. For instance, Dharma is a rough-and-tough guy from a middle-class family, who believes that if you walk you are a man, and if you are in a car, you are a big man. Satya, on the other hand, is the daughter of a rich and powerful man, who is simplicity personified. There’s a stark contrast between them – he has nothing and wants more; she has it all and doesn’t want anything. When these two meet, they are at each other’s throats, yet always together, pretty much like the cartoon characters of Tom and Jerry and that is what inspired the title.”

The film is releasing along with Nenapirali Prem’s Premam Poojyam and was earlier in a three-way box office contest with Ganesh’s Sakath as well, but that has now been pushed to a later day. How does it feel to release his film along with more popular names? “I believe that this universe has a place and time for everyone and, hence, we will get our due, as will they theirs. Also, content is king and if the audience likes what you have set out to say, they will appreciate it. Obviously, as a better-known name, Prem will probably get more theatres. We are hopeful of increasing our reach once word-of-mouth publicity works for our film. No doubt, there is a fair amount of anxiety about releasing in these uncertain times, because we do not want a good film to fail. My career is also dependent on how well or not the film does,” says Nischith.