Prakash Raj: Photo is a film that is relevant and disturbed me at many levels

Prakash Raj is presenting a Kannada film called Photo, a festival darling that he thinks a wider audience absolutely ought to watch. The actor has no formal agreement with the film team – they still hold all the intellectual rights, as well as OTT and satellite rights. Yes, he is putting in some money into the publicity of the film and in ensuring it reaches audiences, but besides that, there is no commercial goal for him as far as Utsav Gonwar’s Photo goes.

His investment, says Prakash, is something he had to do for the experience that the film gave him and he is not looking at a return on it. If it does that’s great, but if it doesn’t, that’s also fine by him. This is how Prakash Raj explained his role as presenter of the film in a recent conversation with Galatta Plus.

Photo, he reckons, is the kind of cinema that cannot be measured in terms of money. These are the films that need a support system and Prakash says it is the responsibility of artistes like him to be there for them. With Photo, Prakash says that he decided to lend his name as presenter for his love for cinema, the honesty that Utsav brought to his film and the urge that it should reach people. Acknowledging all the help that he got from veterans in his early days as an actor, Prakash says it is his duty to pay it forward and ensure that he can be of help to youngsters.

Utsav Gonwar’s film on migrant exodus during the pandemic, Photo, is coming to theatres 

Elaborating on what fascinated him about Photo, Prakash said that it was not only a very relevant film, but also the fact that a 22-year-old filmmaker saw and perceived somethings related to the pandemic that he, as a man who has seen more of the world did not. The honesty that Utsav brought to a subject that disturbed him, which then pushed him to document this “wound” (the exodus of migrant workers from places like, say, Bengaluru, when the lockdown was announced) is what struck Prakash.

Photo is being brought to screens by KRG Studios on March 15. The film is about a young boy’s dream to take a picture in front of the Vidhana Soudha, which does not pan out when the lockdown is announced and he and his father have to somehow find their way back to their hometown.