‘Asuran’ (Tamil), ‘Chichhore’ (Hindi) and ‘Jersey’ (Telugu), winners in ‘Best Feature Film’ category at the 67th National Film Awards, need no introduction. But the jury’s choice of the Kannada film has left many by surprise. Apart from a song on YouTube, no promotional material of the film was available on the internet.
‘Akshi’ is from a team of newcomers with Manoj Kumar donning the director’s role. The debutant’s film is inspired is by legendary actor Dr Rajkumar. ‘Akshi’ talks about eye donation. “I had to wait for six years to make this film,” Manoj told DH on Monday.
“I met so many producers but they weren’t impressed with the subject. The film’s idea first came to me when I was in college. When Dr Rajkumar passed away, we realised he had donated his eyes. People in villages didn’t have any awareness on eye donation. Newspapers had published on the front page about Rajkumar’s eyes being donated to two people. That’s when we understood that something like this is actually possible,” explained Manoj.
“We are a bunch of rookies. It feels great that our film has won the National Award. We shot for 55 days, most of the time in rain, in Chikkamagaluru. We have given our best and hopefully people will like the film,” Manoj said of his film slated to release next month.
An assistant to veteran director N Om Prakash Rao, Manoj loves commercial films. “I definitely want to make commercial entertainers. But I wanted to start off with a film with a strong message. Because in big films we don’t know how easy it is to incorporate relevant message,” he said.
The film’s song ‘Kannigagi Kannugala’, sung by the legendary SP Balasubrahmanyam and Manasa Holla, was released by actor ‘Nenapirali’ Prem for PRK Audio on YouTube last week. “SPB sir has sung in a unique style. He loved the song. It would have been great if he was with us now,” said Manoj.
‘Akshi’ is produced by news anchor Kalaadegula Srinivas. “It’s a small film so we cannot spend on promotional strategies. We are take one step at a time on the film’s release,” said Srinivas, who is also the film’s music composer and lyricist.