Pawan Kumar interview: On performing in Shodha, his stint with farming, and failure of Dhoomam

Pawan Kumar is an enterprising man. In 2012, when Kannada cinema was in dire want of a next-wave motion, he made the crowd-funded psychological thriller Lucia, which impressed a number of filmmakers to interrupt the tried-and-tested system within the trade. In 2020, through the COVID-19 pandemic, Pawan launched the Filmmakers United Club (FUC). During a interval when the movie trade was looking at an unsure future, the FUC ensured actions associated to cinema, equivalent to on-line movie screenings and discussions, had been sustained.

In 2023, he shocked everybody by pursuing farming, a transfer that got here on the again of the debacle of his final directorial movie, Dhoomam, starring Fahadh Faasil and produced by Hombale Films. Many felt it was his method of coping with the Malayalam movie’s failure. Pawan says he by no means considered farming as a break from doing motion pictures. “I can’t say I utterly moved to farming. We purchased a bit of land and I had to determine what to do with it,” he says.

At the farm referred to as Pasownas in Hullahalli close to Mysuru, Pawan grows vegatables and fruits, and vegetation saplings. Having accomplished a permaculture design course, Pawan’s full-fledged involvement in farming meant that his ardent followers needed to wait a bit longer for his return to cinema. The actor-filmmaker held a few filmmaking workshops towards the picturesque backdrop of the farm. In considered one of his movies, he in contrast farmers to writers, calling them the elemental origin of a high quality product.

Keeping apart the comparability of farming with motion pictures, Pawan notes, “You can dwell with out movies, however you possibly can’t say the identical about meals. Farming has been an eye-opening expertise. When I understood what goes into rising meals, it was an enormous lesson, and I persevered with farming. The strategy of working with nature is difficult and sophisticated. You would possibly include an amazing plan, however three days of rain will offset all the pieces. So I learnt to cope with such uncertainties.”

After a two-year hiatus, Pawan sprung a shock by revealing that he was again in entrance of the digital camera. He performs the lead in Shodha, the upcoming Kannada ZEE5 authentic internet sequence. Set to premiere on August 29, Shodha is reportedly tailored from the Hindi internet sequence Khoj. Also starring Siri Ravikumar and Arun Sagar, Shodha is a psychological thriller a couple of man’s determined seek for his lacking spouse.

“The corporates have their causes to not spend money on Kannada. That’s why I used to be excited once I learnt that ZEE5 was eager on Kannada originals. If we don’t reply to such calls for from the platforms, we can be caught in a chicken-and-egg state of affairs. I jumped into the challenge with out even studying my contract. The performing bug in me is all the time alive,” he says.

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Sunil Mysore (Orchestra Mysuru fame)is the director, whereas humorist Suhash Navarathna has written the script for Shodha. Pawan has been credited as a script physician. “Even although I attempted to be simply an actor within the first couple of days on units, my writer-director facet would pop up with out my information. I instructed some tweaks to the narrative construction of Shodha, aside from revising sure strains within the script. I attempted to raise the prevailing materials, and the whole crew was okay with it,” explains Pawan.

Having directed the time-loop drama Kudi Yedamaithe for Aha and co-directed the Netflix dystopian drama Leila starring Huma Qureshi, Pawan isn’t new to the OTT house. The filmmaker confesses that he would need to discover the online sequence house. “An online sequence takes away the field workplace stress. Today, aside from exceptions equivalent to Tourist Familyand Su From So, movies which are doing effectively are “occasion movies” which are massive on scale. My movies are an intimate expertise, and I method scenes in a extra area of interest method in comparison with a ‘masala’ film. In an online sequence, you possibly can inform a narrative by means of a number of dimensions quite than following a template.”

Dhoomam, a thriller that addressed the unwell results of smoking,was Pawan’s first failure. With a preferred manufacturing home (Hombale) and one of many nation’s most interesting actors (Fahadh), the movie seemed like a sure-shot hit on paper. However, it stumbled on the field workplace. Pawan says the movie’s outcome has left him a tad confused, although he now is aware of the place he went incorrect.

“Till the day of the discharge, I confirmed the movie to so many individuals, together with the producers and heads of some OTT platforms. All of them gave a constructive response. I learnt that if out of 10 folks, even when one individual has a pointy criticism about your work, it’s essential to worth her or him,” he says, including he would have beloved to make one change within the script.

“The video the place Alfred Hitchcock talks concerning the ‘bomb second’ is kind of standard. He says that if two individuals are speaking and there’s a bomb beneath their desk, it’s essential to present the bomb first after which present them speaking. In Dhoomam, I made the error of not revealing the uncomfortable fact to start with. If I had not hidden it, the viewing expertise would have been totally different for the viewers,” he causes.

Pawan additionally blamed the dialogues of the unique model for the movie’s poor destiny. “I learnt that the dialogues in Malayalam had been very educational and didn’t have a soul. I don’t converse a phrase of Malayalam, and utterly trusted the interpretation and route division,” he rues.

Despite the poor outcome, the movie has discovered its target market, believes Pawan. “When we launched the film on YouTube, there was a sudden wave of viewers liking the film. I put a QR code with the ending credit. People might scan and write to me. I’m glad I did that as a result of so many individuals wrote to me saying they might relate to it. So, the field workplace outcome and the reception on YouTube had been contrasting, leaving me a bit confused. Then I realised that there’s all the time an viewers to your works. Even if not now, years later, your movie will discover its viewers.”

No dialog with Pawan is full with no question about Dvitva, his bold challenge with Puneeth Rajkumar that couldn’t take off as a result of premature demise of the actor in 2021. “There are talks occurring about turning into an online sequence. That stated, I haven’t been capable of resolve on the lead actor,” he indicators off.

Shodha will stream on ZEE5 from August 29, 2025