Exclusive! Stories rooted in a culture get a global audience if they're about a human condition: Pedro-maker Natesh Hegde

A year ago, a young filmmaker from the Western Ghat region of Karnataka, was the talk of town everywhere his debut feature film went. Natesh Hegde, and his film Pedro, were media darlings; everyone who saw the feature loved it for varying reasons. It’s a journey that hasn’t ended for Natesh; Pedro, is still a hot favourite in the festival circuit and is gearing up for its next outing at the Bengali Kannada Film Festival of Bengaluru. “We have stopped sending the film to festivals. The screenings now are a part of prior commitments, which should end by September, following which we are looking at giving the film a theatrical and then OTT outing,” says Natesh.

The year gone by has been an affirmation for the filmmaker that stories, however rooted they are in a language, culture and location, can find a global audience when they are about a human condition. In that sense, Pedro has been a truly global film, finding acceptance everywhere it went. But in this day and age of pan-India, pan-world cinema, Natesh is not keen on forcing “universal emotions for acceptability”. “With Pedro, I realized that you do not need to force-fit your narrative for greater acceptance. If you tell your story, the way you want and you are happy with the outcome, people in any corner of the world will take a look and be able to relate to it,” he says.

Even though Pedro has been much-feted, Natesh is not resting on those laurels. The filmmaker has already begun work on his next, Vaghachipani (Tiger’s Pond), which is being jointly produced by actor-filmmaker Rishab Shetty (who backed Pedro also) and the Busan International Film Festival as part of its Asian Project Market. This one will also be in typical Natesh style, shot in locations near his home town, with people he’s known and grown up with. His father, Gopal Hegde, who played the lead in Pedro, will be a part of this one as well. This time around, Natesh is a little ambitious as far as his cast goes – he’s hoping to get producer Rishab to play a character. “But he’s got a lot of other commitments, so it remains to be seen if we can work this out. Raj B Shetty will be in the film, as will Gopalkrishna Deshpande. The film, which is named after a village called Vaghachipani in the Western Ghat region, is based on a script that I wrote, which, in turn, has been inspired from published works by Amaresh Nugadoni. I have put together a bunch of stories to present one coherent narrative,” explains Natesh.

Although the first poster that he released features a tiger, Natesh says it is not a story of human vs animal conflict. “Pedro, Vaghachipani and my next, Divided, are about human emotions and conflicts that make you lose your ground and the bitterness that comes from that. This is all I can divulge at the moment,” adds Natesh, who is looking at going on floors later this year during the winter. “It’s a story that has to be told during the cold months,” he signs off.