Not just Head Bush, Agni Sreedhar’s biography inspires Adarsh Eshwarappa as well

The filmmaker’s short film, Chapter 11, is based on one episode of the reformed gangster’s life

A still from the short film

“I love the drama of this particular chapter (11) of Agni Sreedhar’s book (My Days in the Underworld: Rise of the Bangalore Mafia). What captured my interest was the friendship between Sreedhar and Bachchan (Sreedhar’s aide); the fact that Bachchan, who could have walked away free, but risks getting caught to save his friend,” says filmmaker Adarsh Eshwarappa, when he talks about the inspiration behind his short film, Chapter 11.

My Days in the Underworld and it's Kannada version Dadagiriya Dinagalu — the autobiography of reformed gangster Agni Sreedhar — is especially popular with the Kannada film industry, considering the 2007 KM Chaitanya directorial Aa Dinagalu, with Chetan in the lead role, was received well. Dhananjaya’s Head Bush, which released recently, is also based on Sreedhar’s biography.

Chapter 11 is the story of two friendships — that of two journalists, and two gangsters — being told through a journalist interviewing Sreedhar. The story from the biography is revealed through Sreedhar — who is not seen in the entire film; only his voice is heard. The film ends with the journalist learning an important lesson of friendship from Sreedhar.

Adarsh teaches hopeful filmmakers and actors classes at Nagathihalli Chandrasekhar’s Tent Cinema Film School. In total, he has made around 10 short films, with Chapter 11 being the ninth one. “I had read about the incident — that of the night Bachchan and Sreedhar almost got caught — around 1.5 years ago. Making this into a film was always on my mind. I interacted with many different actors during the classes that I took, and felt that this subject would work best with the current batch of students,” explains Adarsh.

The budget was then allotted, resources put in place, and permissions taken from Sreedhar, who also watched the screening and appreciated the project. Given the limited budget, recreating the 80s and 90s era (during which Sreedhar’s story is based) was a challenge. The team got creative and shot it in Bengaluru’s Jalahalli area, which still has an old-world charm, and used only available light. “So much so that the moment the gangsters get caught, a street light goes off; we actually turned off a real street lamp for that scene,” laughs Adarsh.

The 26-minute-long film is in Kannada and English. When asked why he chose to use both languages, Adarsh tells us, “I didn’t write a single dialogue for this film; I wanted it to be as real and raw as possible, and I feel that when you ask actors to learn lines and repeat them, it makes them conscious and ‘act’. I made the actors read 15 pages from My Days in the Underworld, and showed them an interview of Agni Sreedhar in which speaks about the particular incident (the interview is included in the end credits). I then made them talk in their own language. Since the actors are urban Bengalureans, they naturally speak in Kannada and English,” says Adarsh.

The director, who is currently working on a feature film script, says that this process has made him a better filmmaker. “In Bhinna and Shuddhi, I was making the actors talk the way I wanted them to — the way I do. But this experience has completely changed me. Here, I gave them the freedom to do what they wanted. I honestly feel like I learnt more than the students, than they did from me. I am more confident as a filmmaker now,” Adarsh adds.

Starring Akanksha Thiagarajan, Abhilash M, Suresha Manjunath and Jayanth Gowda, edited and directed by Adarsh Eshwarappa, produced by CS Shobha, DOP by Sidharth Sunil and sound mixing by Ravi Hiremath, Chapter 11 can be watched on YouTube.

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