The urge to make an “original picture” fuelled Nithin Krishnamurthy to think of a debut film like Hostel Hudugaru Bekagiddare. “I have always believed that cinema must push boundaries. I didn’t want people to be reminded of any film while watching this movie,” says the director, reflecting on the success of his film.
The Kannada film, released on July 21, has been hailed for reviving the industry. Big films failed to seduce audiences in the first six months of the year. Now the college crowd is flocking to theatres to watch Hostel Hudugaru Bekagiddare. Youngsters are loving the film’s raw energy, chaotic drama and hilarious dialogues.
Nithin, post his engineering days, met cinematographer Arvind Kashyap on the sets of Pawan Kumar’s experimental film Lucia (2013). The duo, with Prajwal BP, have co-produced the Hostel Hudugaru Bekagiddare along with Varun Gowda. The path-breaking Lucia, a crowd-funded Kannada feature, had lit the fire in the trio.
Director Nithin Krishnamurthy on the sets of the film | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“We never thought about pitching this film to a producer,” says Arvind. “We wondered if anybody would understand this concept to fund it. We also didn’t know how to convince someone. Initially, the budget was affordable, and we used our savings to kickstart the project. Later on, the scale of the film became bigger and bigger. There were times when many teammates chipped in with money to ensure we don’t compromise on anything.”
Hostel Hudugaru Bekagiddare is about one night’s incident in a boys hostel. The hostel warden dies by suicide, and his letter names a bunch of boys as the reason for his death. The boys need to find a way out of this situation before they sit to write their exams the next morning.
Despite having a script, Nithin shot the film in the cinéma vérité style. The dialogues feel spontaneous, and the camera remains in observational mode throughout to give a fly-on-the-wall effect to the viewers. Improvisation of dialogues was the most striking feature of the film’s writing, says Nithin.
Cinematographer Arvind Kashyap | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“I had written a romantic comedy first. I didn’t pursue it because of budgetary constraints. Then I wrote this story in six weeks. We have rehearsed each scene many times. There were at least 10-12 actors in each scene, and there was constant overlapping of dialogues. We didn’t cut those dialogues off because we wanted the scenes to look natural. So even if the script was locked, the dialogues had to be improvised during the shoot,” explains Nithin.
Handling the crowd was Arvind’s biggest challenge. “There were scenes involving more than 50 people saying 20 different dialogues. So we all had to know who would be telling what, the sequence of dialogues, and the placement of actors. Since most of the scenes are single takes, I had to memorise the scenes and dialogues,” he details.
For someone who shot big-scale films such as 777 Charlie and Kantara, filming Hostel Hudugaru Bekagiddare was stepping out of his comfort zone for Arvind. “I didn’t have the compulsion to shoot anything beautiful or scenic. The cinematography had to appear raw to suit the movie’s concept,” he says.
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Several last-minute changes were bound to happen while shooting with a script without a traditional structure. “We added several dialogues during the dubbing sessions,” says Nithin. “People loved those lines. We hadn’t even written the climax. We had a couple of options in mind. We decided to watch the complete film and then take a call on the climax.”
The makers have paid tributes to Edgar Wright and Upendra, two directors known for idiosyncratic filmmaking. “Upendra is my all-time favourite. The way he broke the structures of a screenplay was terrific. If you take his Upendra (1999), the way he made the film was so unique, and back then, I wasn’t able to understand it completely,” Nitin shares.
The response to his film shows how audiences have updated themselves, feels Nithin. “With the OTT boom, film buffs have found better exposure to quality content. So you can risk a bit as a filmmaker, and audiences are sure to back you,” he says.
