‘Wanted the Time Travel concept to be a surprise,” says Banaras director Jayathirtha Jayanna

The trailer of Banaras certainly caught everyone by a pleasant surprise. What seemed like a bona fide love story at first glance that is set in the heart Varanasi, director Jayathirtha subverted things by revealing that, in essence, Banaras is a time-travel film. "I had to keep that a secret because it was always meant to be a surprise," he says, adding that while his film is still very much a poignant love-story, the science-fiction and time-loop concepts give it a new edge.

"As much as I enjoy making love stories, I wanted to give something new to the current audience. And if a film is to be released in multiple languages and qualify as a pan-India film, a simple love story will not suffice. So, this film is a unique blend of film genres and the philosophy, vibe, divinity, etc. of the city of Kashi and I don't suppose audience would have seen anything like this," said Jayathirtha at the trailer launch event.

And yet, Time Travel has hardly been explored in Indian cinema, let alone Kannada, and Jayathirtha is likely to have had a tough job simplifying the concept to the masses.

"In fact, the task of making it palatable to the audience became the biggest task for me as the writer. And for that, I watched almost every single film made in India that was based on the concept to understand how it has been employed. I would watch South Korean, European, and other films too to get a clear grip on the writing aspect and also ensure that my film steered clear of the tropes used in other films. Maybe that's the reason there isn't a film reference I could give when it comes to Banaras because what we have tried, one wouldn't find the same blend in other cinema," added the Bell Bottom director.

Banaras, the city, is the soul of the script

But for Jayathirtha, the ethos of the holy city of Kashi or Banaras is the core of the film and he shares that the uniqueness of the place lent itself to the development of his script. It all begin as a fanciful idea for him, to use Banaras as the backdrop, but as he spent more time there, the idea evolved to become something new altogether.

"I only had a one-liner in my head before reaching Banaras but when I looked around and soaked in the charm of the place, the small intricacies began to make their way into the script. My cinematographer Advaitha Gurumurthy and I were so enchanted by the mystery of Kashi, the culture, the small lanes, the people, and everything about it. We wanted to shoot a big chunk of the film in Bengaluru but after spending time in Banaras, we ended up shooting 90% of the film there - in fact, the opening shot of the film is river Cauvery and the closing shot if the Ganga. Previously, films like Naan Kadavul have shown the dark and grim side of the city but I wanted to show the vibrant side of it. And if you see the aerial view of Banaras, it almost looks like a time device so the place was ideal as the backdrop for our film," shares Jayathirtha Jayanna.