Ikkat addresses marital stress and the frustrations of staying confined in a house: Nagabhushana

In an exclusive interview with OTTplay, Ikkat’s leads, Nagabhushana and Bhoomi Shetty, talk about their characters in the Kannada rom-com, which will release on July 21 on Amazon Prime Video.

For actors Nagabhushana and Bhoomi Shetty, the upcoming movie Ikkat will always be special as it marks the former’s first film as a lead hero and the latter’s first ever feature film. Shot during the pandemic and revolving around a couple who is confined to their home due to the lockdown, the film promises to strike a chord with the audience.

The movie directed by Esham Khan and Haseen Khan, also stars RJ Vicky, Sundar, Anand Ninasam in supporting roles. In an exclusive chat with OTTplay, both of them share their excitement about the romantic comedy entertainer, which will release on Amazon Prime Video on July 21.

Nagabushana, this is your first movie in a lead role. What were the challenges playing the role?

My role here is that of a typical middle class husband, who is settled in a big city like Bengaluru with his wife. He is more on the irritating side who likes to be the dominant husband and dictates his wife’s life. In order to get in the form of the described character, I visited the salon and gave the hairdresser a detailed description about my character for him to do his job.

Bhoomi, you have been very active in soap operas before this and your popularity soared after your stint in Bigg Boss. How different was it working in this film?

Working in TV channels and doing movies are totally different things. When it comes to soap operas, you play your role for a long time but in movies, you only have to do your role for a short period of time and it is done. The role of Jhanvi in Ikkat was both challenging and easy for me at the same time. Challenging because I have been doing serials for a long while and the sudden shift was a bit too much initially. Easy because the character that I was assigned portrays the role of the present day woman who is not ready to take orders from any men and has opinions on her own. As the movie went on, the character and I sort of were exploring each other and it was a fun journey.

The movie was shot in the middle of the pandemic, with minimal settings. How was the experience?

Bhoomi: The movie was shot in a 2 BHK apartment with minimum members. As we shot the movie during the initial stages of lockdown, the residents were scared about us shooting in the building, but we managed to reassure them that we were going to be extremely cautious and wouldn’t disturb anybody.

From the trailer, this movie is based on how people are dealing with the pandemic and how we are all literally losing our minds staying locked up at home. Could you please explain a bit about your roles, how you could relate to them and the theme of the movie?

Nagabushana: The movie addresses social issues such as marital stress, and the frustrations and suffocations that come with staying confined to the four walls of our house all the time, not being able to commute to anywhere whatsoever. Since everybody was going through anxiety and stress, I am sure people could connect to this movie on another level.

How do you feel about the movie being released on an OTT platform like Amazon Prime Video?

Nagabhushana: This simply feels amazing. The world has suffered a lot already. Our movie is being released in over 240 countries. Apart from the language, people can literally relate to everything else that is happening in the movie.

Bhoomi: The day we got to know that our movie is going to be released on Amazon Prime Video, I was overjoyed because I feel this way our movie reaches a lot more people and they can watch it at the comfort of their homes.

How liberating was it to do a comedy amid the pandemic?

We are here to entertain people and we are glad that we could pull off the whole scenario while expressing it in a humorous way yet explaining the intensity of the situation.

Bhoomi, as someone active in TV and making her digital and film debut, how much does OTTs help giving more opportunities to up-and-coming actors?

I think that we are in a loop of non-stop evolution. Like how street play became stage play and stage play became motion pictures. And now it has evolved to watching movies and series or whatever we choose from the comfort of our home by releasing everything on OTT platforms. This way a lot more people are given opportunities and we see a lot of new faces today on OTT platforms rather than just the mainstream actors.

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