Exclusive | Aachar & Co. director Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy talks casting, Puneeth Rajkumar's reaction & more

It goes without saying that PRK Productions came into being as an endeavour to support talent that did not belong to Kannada cinema's mainstream. The production company, of course, is the brainchild of the late superstar Puneeth Rajkumar and his wife Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar and it is quite evident from the filmography so far that PRK is interested in taking the slightly off-the-beaten course to make movies. 

And more than five years in business, PRK Productions has stuck to its founding ethos and still continues to make films that are inventive, out of the box and unusual. A case in point is Aachar & Co., a promising comedy-drama that is fascinatingly set in the Bengaluru of the 1960s/70s with a quintessential old-city family in focus. The world and the setting of the film might seem dated but the trailer suggests quite strongly that its spirit, its resolve are quite relevant to today's times. 

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Exclusive | PRK Productions & Aachar & Co. to take Bengalureans down memory lane to 1960s 

Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy, who has not only co-written and directed the film but also starred in it as one of the principal characters, shares that when she took the idea of the film to Puneeth Rajkumar, he was extremely excited about the world that it attempted to bring alive.

"I had shown him a 6-minute sample film that I had shot based on the full-length script - we had shot two scenes that I funded myself and got my actor friends from theatre to help me out. In fact, we shot those scenes in one of our cast members Aniruddh Acharya's (who plays Jaggu in the film) grandmother's house in Jayanagar only because it still has red oxide flooring like in the old days. Even though it was the most compact house, we still made it work because the homes in the '60s were small. So, when Appu sir watched this 6-minute film, he simply loved it. He was like, "There's something so unique about it. There's a retro feel to it, it's also about this very quirky, dysfunctional family (also quite harmless!).". He also saw the performances in the film - I was a part of the cast - and we know that PRK Productions has always promoted new talent." 

"For him (Puneeth Rajkumar), it was like 'Where have these actors been and why do we not see them often'. So, another proposition I made was to cast the actors I know from the theatre scene - not because I know them as friends but because they deserve an opportunity. And since one cannot survive or sustain on theatre alone, we felt that this film could be another avenue for them and they, PRK Productions, were fully on board," shares Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy in an exclusive chat with OTTplay.

Aachar & Co. also stars Vamsidhar Bhogaraju, Harshil Kaushik, Sudha Belawadi, Ashok, Jagadeesh Sukumar, Sonu Venugopal and others. Bindhumalini has scored the music with Abhimanyu Sadanandan handling the cinematography. The film releases in theatres on July 28.