Once upon a time if you wanted to produce a film, it was assumed that you had to be a businessman, a real estate mogul or an inheritor of a large family fortune. But thanks to crowdfunding, that’s no longer the case.
400 auto drivers in Bengaluru have come together to produce a Kannada film starring Aru Gowda (of Muddu Manase fame) and directed by AR Shan (son of veteran director AR Babu), according to reports.
Contrary to what you might think, the film which is currently being shot, has a large budget with each driver contributing between Rs 1,000 and Rs 2 lakh. The total budget of the film? Around 2 crores.
When director AR Shan went to ‘Auto’ Nagraj to narrate the script of the film, he had no idea he was pitching his idea to a producer. As is obvious from his name, ‘Auto’ Nagraj is an auto driver by profession as well as a film publicist. This time however, he wanted to produce Shan’s film.
I have been an auto driver for the last 15 years. I wanted to become an actor and so developed contacts with many film personalities. Every day we hear about a realtor becoming a film producer or a software engineer becoming a director or actor. Then why not auto drivers who are the first people to watch Kannada movies when they release? Even before AR Shan told me about his plan for a film, I discussed the idea of producing a movie with many of my auto driver friends. Now, 400 are on board.‘Auto’ Nagraj, Film Producer and Auto Driver in Bengaluru
The film, which is described as a dark comedy, is under production with the shoot proceeding smoothly. The film also includes some of the most well-known technical names in the Kannada film industry like music by Kaushik Harsha, cinematography by Guru Prashanth Rai, lyrics by V Nagendra Prasad and editing by KM Prakash.
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