PremiumExclusive! Vinay Rajkumar – Ondu Sarala Prema Kathe is a musical love story that’s fun and relatable
Vinay Rajkumar discusses his love for rom-coms, and why marketing is so crucial for any film these days
Last Updated: 05.37 PM, Feb 03, 2024
Vinay Rajkumar is getting a “proper” film release after a while. There was 2018’s Ananthu vs Nusrath and although 10 came out in 2022 , literally no one knew of it, as it had theatrical outing of only a few days before heading to Amazon Prime Video. In that sense, Ondu Sarala Prema Kathe, which is set to be in theatres next week is Vinay’s comeback of sorts. The film, though, is sandwiched between several other Kannada releases, not really what one would expect for a star son’s movie.
“There is no way to regulate the number of movies that should release in a week, month or year. Everybody’s done their hard work and has waited for their time and everything would have come together at a certain time. You can’t then stipulate the order in which they should release their films. It should just be a mutual understanding that should naturally happen. For Ondu Sarala Prema Kathe, the timing is actually not bad, because there are not too many movies at the same time. There’s also a good gap from other releases. I think it’s a good slot, especially since it is a love story and Valentine’s Day is around the corner,” says Vinay.
The actor is not perturbed by the fact that the box office is going to be flooded with Kannada films over the next few weeks. “Content is king and if audiences like your film, no matter what, it will do well. Kannada audiences do not let a nice movie fall apart at the box office, irrespective of when it releases,” he says.
Having said that, Vinay adds that marketing is very important. “You should know your target audience and tell them about your film. That is very crucial for any movie nowadays. In fact, the marketing has to be focused on that first day, in getting people to the theatres and having them say the film is good. If you get that right, it’s the best way of advertising your film – word of mouth. That can only happen if the theatres are full or at least some people are there on day 1,” he adds.
Vinay’s comeback movie is a love story, directed by Suni, a genre that Kannada audiences seem to like from a filmmaker with a decent track record of making entertaining films. “I think people will really like Ondu Sarala Prema Kathe because it has a very relatable story and the fact that the songs are doing well, which has really boosted our confidence. This is a musical with 11 songs, of which only three are proper numbers, while the rest are part of the background score. It’s a fun family drama that everyone can enjoy. I have even tried some bit of comedy for the first time,” the actor tells us.
Suni is known for his wicked sense of humour, which Vinay experienced first-hand on set. “There are so many fun one-liners in the film that would actually crack me up. And none of them were in the script. Suni would come up with these punchlines on set and tell me; it was quite a task not laughing out loud each time I had to say something funny,” he says, adding, “Now that I have seen the film, I think the comedy has worked out really well.”
Even though Suni is well-liked in industry circles and has a decent filmography to boot, his success graph has not been steady. What made Vinay work with him? “If you look at my filmography so far, I have never given much thought to how the films will perform at the box office, even though that is a crucial element of being in the industry. Also, I wanted to work with Suni and we were to collaborate on another movie some time ago, which did not materialize eventually, so when this came up and he said it would be a rom-com, even though it’s not his story, I jumped at it; it’s my favourite genre,” says Vinay.
The beauty of Ondu Sarala Prema Kathe is that it is an old-school love story, like, say Excuse Me. “We’ve tried to tell such a story in a new format, which was challenging and exciting at the same time,” says the actor.