It is around 4 pm when we reach an engineering college in Hanumanthnagar. While most educational institutes are getting ready to close for the day, this one in particular is still buzzing with activity.
A corner of the lawn is brimming with the film crew, hustling and bustling, moving lights, cameras. One shouts out to the production to provide an actor water, while the script writer dashes towards the cameraman to discuss the next scene.
The film that is being shot is Crush, directed by début director Abhishek and has Satish as the DOP. Lyrics are by Anutham and Abhishek, while Chandramohan produces the film.
“As its name suggests, the film is all about college life and the first crush of characters in the film,” says Chandramohan. The film features Aarya in the lead.
“A majority of the film has been shot in Bengaluru with a few scenes and songs in Rameshwaram,” adds the producer, who has earlier produced a couple of mini series on YouTube. Chandramohan, a civil contractor by profession, adds that he took to films because of his daughter, Chandana, who is passionate about films and instilled the same enthusiasm in him.
The college campus plays a major part in the film.
This particular day’s shoot is about a small misunderstanding between the hero and heroine. The crew has also occupied a few classrooms. While one classroom is a shooting spot, the other has been converted into a make-up and changing room.
Take one
Aarya, who plays the lead, is supposed to walk towards his lady love and propose to her. She rejects him and walks off. Aarya is then supposed to storm off to his classroom on the first floor. Next, as he is about to break a flower pot in anger, he is stopped by his friends. Still unable to control his temper, he storms off and walks straight into his professor, who reprimands him for his temper.
The first scene is a perfect take in one shot. But the one where he is supposed to smash the pot and bump into his professor, requires a few retakes as the space on the balcony is narrow and it gets a bit congested with the cast and crew.
Once the shots are perfected, they all head back down and the same scene is shot once again, this time with close up shots.
Aarya says that his character is of a “middle class, spoilt child. He has lost his mother at a tender age and is used to getting everything he sets his eyes on.”
Next shot
They proceed to shoot the next scene, where Aarya is being cajoled by his friends and he gets ragged by another group of boys. As they shift the lights and camera, Chandramohan adds that the “film will be a total entertainer. A clean comedy with a little bit of romance and loads of humour. No one will get bored when they watch this film. There is also a lot of sentiment.”
The other actors in the film are Sridhar, Manjunath Hegde and Prathibha who plays Aarya’s love interest. Director Rohit Aditya, known as Gombegala Love Rohit, also plays a pivotal role in the film.
Investing time
Abhishek has written the story and directs this film. He adds he took eight months to develop the script. “Though the story may be about a common topic like a crush, there will be a freshness and a newness in the manner in which we have portrayed every character,” he says. DOP Satish explains, “He is filming it in a realistic and no-frills manner so that audiences will relate to what they see on screen.”
This column takes you behind the screens