X&Y director Satya Prakash: After Ondalla Eradalla, I was told not to do experimental cinema

Ondalla Eradalla was filmmaker D Satya Prakash’s sophomore project after the state-award winning Rama Rama Re – a film that, however, was a complete washout at the box office. It is a failure that continues to baffle Satya to date. Ondalla Eradalla, which was about a 7-year-old boy’s search for his pet cow that goes missing, opened in theatres along with another ‘children’s film’, Sarkari Hiriya Prathamika Shaale, and had issues from day 1, with no shows at all on Day 1.

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Satya Prakash: Failure of Ondalla Eradalla broke my team's confidence 

“It was heartbreaking for the entire team; a lot of effort went into making that film and no one got to see it. In fact, a lot of people do not even know that I made a film called Ondalla Eradalla after Rama Rama Re. For a team that proved that films with experimental subjects like Rama Rama Re are also accepted, the complete failure of Ondalla Eradalla broke that confidence,” said Satya during a promotional interview for his upcoming film X&Y, which will be in theatres on June 26.

What’s worse is that Satya is not sure who is to blame for the debacle his film suffered. “It was not about an issue with distribution; shows just didn’t happen and the reasons stated were technical issues that did not seem convincing. We tried fighting to get the film its due, but by then, Sarkari Hiriya Prathamika Shaale came in with a lot of hype and took over the box office and my film was out of theatres after Day 3,” he adds.

After all the praise and support he got for Rama Rama Re, Satya says that he was then told not to dabble with experimental cinema, once Ondalla Eradalla failed. Interestingly enough, Ondalla Eradalla went on to win two National Awards - Best Feature Film on National Integration and Best Child Artiste for Rohit Pandavapura. Sarkari Hiriya Prathamika Shaale was adjudged Best Children’s Film in the same year.