Girish Kasaravalli's daughter to direct

Filmmaker Girish Kasaravalli’s son Apurva Kasaravalli has been working on his directorial debut titled Niruttara for some time now. Now, his sister Ananya will also wield the megaphone for an as-yet-untitled Kannada film, which is slated to take off soon. The film is scheduled to go on the floor on Gandhi Jayanthi, and Ananya will team up with her father’s long-time associate Basant Kumar Patil for the film.Talking about the film, Ananya says, “This is based on a short story by Gopalakrishna Pai titled Beladi Harishchandra. This story deals with the life of a Yakshagana artiste who is a sthripatradhari.” Ananya reveals that she has been researching this subject for a year to get the finer details correct and has even visited some Yakshagana centres in Udupi for more details. “Shrunga (of Parari fame) will play the protagonist. He has even undergone brief Yakshagana training for his role. The film also stars KG Krishnamurthy and Champa Shetty. We also have a lot of new faces from Mangaluru and Kundapura, in a bid to lend authenticity to the subject. I have Udit Khurana, my classmate from Chennai, as the cinematographer, while Mohan Kamakshi, who has been on board for some of my father’s films, will edit the film,” she adds.