Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar on Aachar & Co: Puneeth believed in director Sindhu's vision and that’s how the film came to be

Aachar & Co is a coming-of-age tale set amid a Bengaluru family in the 1960s

Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy in a still from the film

Aachar & Co is a PRK Production that the late Puneeth Rajkumar had okayed before his tragic and untimely demise in October 2021. The story, says Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar, came to them in June 2021, after which there was a brief deliberation as to whether to take it up or not for production. Once it was decided to go ahead, the plan was to go on floors in December of that year, but then tragedy struck the family. Ashwini, though, was keen to keep Puneeth’s dreams for the banner alive and went ahead with production in April 2022.

The film, says Ashwini, is a simple family story, with nothing extraordinary about it. “It’s a comedy drama that everyone can enjoy. Puneeth was impressed by the six-minute showreel that director-writer Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy presented, while I had read the screenplay and liked it,” she said during a press briefing prior to the film’s release.

Ashwini adds that there was a moment of hesitation before entrusting Sindhu with the responsibility of directing the film, considering that she is quite young and only a couple of films old as an artiste. But Puneeth and she were sold on Sindhu’s showreel, which they felt was proof her capability as a filmmaker too. “In fact, Puneeth said we should have confidence in her,” says Ashwini, adding that he always said that a director’s vision, as the captain of the ship, had to be trusted and hence, like him, she never interfered with the making process of the film.

Aachar & Co has been written by Sindhu and popular standup comedian Kanan Gill. The film is about the family of Madhusudan and Savithri Aachar and their 10 children. How they cope with the loss of the family patriarch forms the crux of the film.

Aachar & Co is coming to theatres on July 28, 2023

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