Arvind Kamath: Every character or story is a discovery and that’s why filmmaking is exciting for me

In the first and second segments of this exclusive three-part interview with Arvind Kamath, the Kannada filmmaker talked about his initial years and struggles, and also about his acclaimed film Arishadvarga. In the final segment, he tells us how being part of film festivals have helped refine his skill, the reception of Kannada films in OTTs and his upcoming movies. 

You have been part of technical committees of various international film festivals in India and served in jury panels of short film festivals. How has these experiences helped refine your skills?

Being a consultant always had to do with the IT guy in me. Those days Digital Cinema Package (DCP) was a rare thing and not many people understood that. For Innuendo, I researched, learnt how to prepare a DCP and troubleshoot one. I picked up that skill because we didn’t have money to spend and the international studios would charge a lot for that. I was a regular at the Bangalore International Film Festival, which was organised by a few of my friends such as Anand Varadaraj and Prakash Belawadi. One day, I went in as a delegate; they had a whole set of hard-drives and were breaking their heads over the DCPs. I said I can help fix them and that’s when Anand said I can join them as a technical consultant. After that, I worked for five years and it was also fetching me some money to stay afloat. I would anyway go to the festival to watch the films. 

Any experience with films is not a waste. When I did Arishadvarga, because I had amassed these skills, it helped me sit through every process in the post production and get it right. Most of the filmmakers don’t know their final mastering of copies. I do it even today. I troubleshoot technicalities for a whole lot of friends too. When our movie was uploaded on Amazon Prime Video, they had trouble with a bug and I helped them resolve it. 

Being a jury on short film festivals, you get to watch a lot of interesting films. It makes you realise there’s a long way to go. Every story is a beast of its own. It’s not that you made one or two films and you know everything. Every character or story is a discovery and that’s why filmmaking is exciting for people like me. When you are making films, there is a new adventure every day. You have to figure out how to treat each character you create differently. There is no template and that’s the joy. 

Arishadvarga was the second Kannada film to premiere at London International Film Festival (LIFF). That must have been a high for you.

We had no plans to send it for festivals, we were making a film for theatrical release, for people to watch. Pawan Kumar suggested that we should try for LIFF. I was not hopeful, but I got in touch with Naman Ramachandran, who had written Brahman Naman and was the lead programmer at LIFF. I requested him to watch the movie, and he loved it. He spoke to me for an hour about the movie and said that they would like to premiere it. I was fine with it because these festivals would help create marketing and visibility. Once that happened, we got calls from film festivals at Singapore and Vancouver.

You are also working on a web series next?

I wrote a short story and wanted to convert it to a film. It was selected for funds in KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival. Although I didn’t win the grant, director Onir wanted to make this film as part of his anthology. He asked me if I would part with the script, but I said I want to direct it. He asked me to pitch it to the investors. By then I got busy with Arishadvarga and then the pandemic happened; Onir also didn’t take it forward. Now, it has kind of grown into many stories that I am exploring as a miniseries. It’s essentially an LGBTQI series and there are few takers here for that content. When I had pitched this to some of the OTTs that had approached me, they weren’t keen on anthologies and LGBTQI content. 

With OTTs, do you think indie Kannada films are now getting a lot of love?

Yes, of course, but I don’t know how many indie Kannada films are there on OTT. Most of the movies are from studios; they are neither independent in thought or budget and execution. About 10 lakh people have attempted to watch Arishadvarga, so I have a 10-lakh-strong audience who would watch my next film. We will keep it on Amazon Prime Video for a few more months, so it will touch about 25 lakh audience. The movie also ran in theatres for 50 days; this wouldn’t have happened if not for COVID-19 restrictions because a lot of people weren’t releasing their films. So, we found that window. 

If a film connects with the audience, it works; but it need not connect with everyone. People say that they have made a family film that the entire family can sit and watch. That’s absurd. Each person has a different taste and you can’t cater to everybody. 

But you are doing a family film next.

Yes, it’s my take on a family movie. Every industry claims to make a family film and it will have blood, gore, crass jokes by comedians and objectification of women. I am currently writing my kind of twisted, dysfunctional family movie.