How AGALU became my first professional short film?

 AGALU

Agalu happened to become my first professional short film in my life. I written the script on 2018 and the movie released in January 1 2019. Agalu is based on extra marital affairs and the story moves through Agosh who is an electrician & married to Amalu many years ago and they both were not happy because of kids they got. And especially Agosh were in depression because of that & same time he meets a girl named Nileena with whom he finds happiness to defeat his depression of not able to reproduce. And when this affair gets to know to his wife Amalu she decides to divorce him, their conversations & their feelings is the story.

I shot Agalu in Nelligudde Lake, Bidadi. I chosen Ashwath Reddy to do the Male Lead role (Ashwath Reddy is one the person who applied for Acting roles through my Quikr Ad ‘Actors Required’ for Sakarathmaka Movie. And he has been touch with me since 2015 & he were a person who doesn’t know anything about Acting but very much interested to do something to become an Actor. It was very tough for him to say dialogues in kannada even though he knew kannada. I don’t know, when I was saying dialogues to let him know how to say, he was saying it, but when I switch on the camera, he was feeling nervous and tension & due to that he was unable to say any dialogues properly. May be he was so concerned about camera, me & especially not to make any errors while pronouncing.

And I was so disappointed when I did finished the shoot, there is no performance video I can choose from the recorded footages, so I just decided to re shoot again with him by explaining more in detail how to pronounce and deliver dialogues naturally. And while re shoot he tried his best and he did something natural which can be taken to make the movie. And then we were looking for heroines, he suggested many, and selected some, but they were unavailable on the day of shoot. And finally we got Kushi Gowda (Aka Pavitra) who belongs to Hesaraghatta, Bengaluru. And she came and we shot in Cubbon park Bengaluru from morning 12pm to evening. She was very excited and interested to do that character & dialogues and all she just delivered well naturally & she was asking weather I wanted to take one more shot for better version. And then the interior scene of Nileena character we shot in a Farmhouse which is located in Hennur Bande, nearby Horamavu where I was staying that time. For the character of Nileena we got Rekha who is a friend of Ashwath & she arrived to my home & we did the shoot well with Rekha & Ashwath Reddy. When I written the script I wanted Harshitha Kallingal (One of the Person who applied to my Quikr ad in 2015 ‘required Actors’ for Sakarathmaka project) to cast as Female lead, and I sent script to her & she read & agreed to do the project. I called her for taking photographs of her with Ashwath as to show Hero & Heroine’s quality times together which is were necessary for the movie to show the background of beginning titles. Harshitha Kallingal arrived cubbon park & I took Harshitha’s & Ashwath’s photos together. And then after few days when I planned to shoot , Harshitha became busy in some other projects and I was not able to wait for her dates and that’s why I just looked forward and then Khushi Gowda replaced her.

The background music for Agalu is purchased from Musicvine.com and the approximate budget of that movie is 25000 (including camera rental charges, food & transport).  Agalu is shot using entry level Dslr Canon1300D & the quality of that camera is not good, but I used the camera in as good as possible without getting any shaky shots or distortions or blur.

CO-LOVE (Malayalam OTT Film)

 CO-LOVE

FAQs with Prem Dev Dileep in regarding his new Project CO-LOVE

WHAT  INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE CO-LOVE?

" The first draft of the script is written on January 2021 & I just wanted to make the movie for OTT and my expected length of this movie were between 40- 50 minutes and I was wanted to make it in Kannada. For that I was selected Aswath Reddy as main male lead & Harshitha Kallingal (Model, belly Dancer, Feature film Actress (Tamil, Malayalam & Kannada). But then suddenly when i got to see a Poster in Instagram which was inviting short filmmakers to compete in a competition of COVID 19 themed short film & the max length of the movie for submission is only 4 minutes. But let me tell about what or who inspired me to write CO-LOVE.

 The main inspiration i got to write this script is based on 1) The Malayalam movie 'See you soon' which really impressed me how they told a story of 2 strangers meeting via online dating app & starts to roll their relationship by online communication, without not really meeting in person. And in that movie the live chatting and browsing, & all kind of digital interaction between characters is very natural & realistic. And they really Re-created those messaging apps and end to end digital conversation artificially without capturing an actor while he is chatting online, because if we try to capture the electronic monitors digital distortions will be seen in footages and blurry view also will accompany. So in the first draft of the script the main characters Pranav & Siya are lovers since many years & during lockdown they interact with each other through Video chat. So I just wanted to experiment as shooting the Actor's performance & the monitor  

HOW YOU CREATED THE CHARACTERS? HOW IT HAPPENED?

" When I just joined in an International school in Electronic City, Bengaluru as a Graphic Designer cum Video Editor, there were a lady (My superior) who was working as a Marketing Executive for the same organization, and she was always concerned about her own health & also her beloved ones health & even people's surrounding her. She was always used to disinfect spray on her work desk before she sits there. She were that much concerned about hygiene around her to not to get caught by any disease, especially COVID. She was taking care of me very well as a collogue, especially when I coughed one day while we were walking together, she was so attentive, bit scary & she told me seriously" Hey see your coughing, you are not taking care of your health Dileep", and I replied in a fun way" Don't worry, you will never get corona from me". So her concern about her own health & others really made me to look at her through my cinematic eyes. And I got an idea that, 'What if a person gets Corona Positive who even always taking precautions regularly well'. So from there I created the character named 'Siya Karan' who is an extremely health conscious & always maintains hygiene & taking precautions in advance to not to get caught by Corona Virus. 

WHY DID YOU COMPRESSED THE SCRIPT?

" I compressed the first draft of CO-LOVE for competing in a short film competition named OPEN SHUTTER short film competition by thanithirai productions & sponsored by Nescafe. When I seen their post in Instagram I am impressed by their cash prizes which the winner gets. 1st prize was 75000, 2nd- 50,000 & 3r was 25,000, and also we have to make the project in the theme COVID LOCKDOWN & THE NEW WORLD', fortunately my project were already in that theme, but their guideline strictly for 4 minutes of movie length for submission, which made me little disappointed, because even after I changed the story a bit & compressed the screenplay page were still in 7 pages.

I thought It is very difficult to say an emotional in depth story in 4 Minutes, but however let's shoot & try to reduce the length of the movie up to 4 minutes and we can send it for submission & the submission deadline was February 25th 2021. And it didn't went as I planned, there was problem in availability of selected Actors on the dates when I planned to shoot. When I wrote the first draft, my plan was to cast Ashwath Reddy in lead role but later when I changed the story a bit & compressed the script for competition I became more serious about casting and in the modified script there were requirement of in depth performances to be given by the Actor to whomever I assign to do. But still I wanted Ashwath Reddy to take that opportunity to perform well (Emotional Scene), but he was not enough confident about giving me the performance i wanted In this movie, I told him that I will be supporting you to perform, you just have to try', but he said he can't cry in any scenes, because he is not trained himself for that. So i got to reject Ashwath Reddy from CO-LOVE Project & then i was thinking about a good Actor who can perform well, i had Yeshwanth (The Actor whom i casted in un finished project named MERGE) in my mind, and i spoken with him about the project, he really impressed by the story of CO-LOVE and he agreed to do the project, but he was in his native and he were working from home, so he was not sure about coming on the day when i decided to shoot. 

And due to his no guarantee of availability for the shoot, i started looking forward for Male Actor's profiles, i searched the data bases of Actors who are applied for Acting roles through my Talentrack.in Advertisement, but i didn't got anybody from local Bangalore. And same time i was searching profiles for Female lead role.

HOW KRISHNA NAMBIAR & HULUGA BECAME CO-LOVE'S LEAD ACTORS?

When i was searching forward for good-looking Actors & Actresses i got few profiles of Actresses & some of the profiles are Malayali.  And i was thinking that, if i get Actors who know Malayalam i will do this project in Malayalam also. And Krishna Nambiar is a Medical Student studies in Siddhartha Medical College, Tumkur & she were applied on 2015 itself when i was looking for Female Artists for my first & cancelled project named 'Sakarathmaka' (English-Kannada Movie) , that time she around 18 years and i couldn't select her because of her young age that time. 

And then in 2020 October, when i posted an AD in Talen track (Required Male & Female Actor) for Marali Bandaga Kannada Movie, she has applied & she were looking more matured & suitable, but for that Project, i wanted an Artist who knows Kannada well, so i couldn't select her. And then when i was not getting new profiles from Talent rack i was looking the profiles of Actors who were applied earlier, and i got a spark to cast Krishna Nambiar as Female lead (Especially because she is medical student & she will be able to do a character who is more hygienic & health conscious) , but in the row there were 3 other female artists & in that 2 Malayali's including Krishna Nambiar. But based on telephonic conversation with Krishna Nambiar i really understood her passion for Acting & how much enthusiastic she is, and i rejected other profiles because lack of their seriousness & one person said 'right now she can't do the role'. So it came to Krishna Nambiar who absolutely fits for the character. And i finalized her cast & then i was struggling to search Male Lead Actor for CO-LOVE, i didn't got anyone better & i just got a spark to cast Mr. Huluga Gundi (Actor who worked in Kannada independent feature film 15-50 & some web series and all) who was applied for Acting roles through Talent track ad for MERGE movie in 2019. I called Huluga and told the story, and he is also impressed by the story & he said 'he is ready for any small role also in my movie' but i gave him the Male Lead role only, but i just wanted a little more confidence from his side that he give the performance required for this movie and so i just sent an Audition script & then he sent me a clip of his performance. I watched it, but i was expecting little more & i forwarded his performance to Krishna Nambiar also, and she said' Yes, i think he can do this role' and so i finalized the cast of HULUGA as Pranav in CO-LOVE Project.