As an actor, it helps when your director is clear about what he wants

The upcoming Kannada film, Ayana, brings together a bunch of newcomers, including director Gangadhar Salimath, a former techie, as well as its cast, led by Deepak Subramanya and Apoorva Soma, both engineers with a passion for theatre. Ahead of their debut film’s release, the team dropped by at the Bangalore TImes office for a tête-à-tête. Excerpts...
How did you come up with the title?
Gangadhar: Most people think that ayana means mirror, but it’s not.I wanted the film to be about a journey; in this case the circle of life and was looking for a word that would encompass that. Most of my choices had already been used for films and that’s when I widened my search into Sanskrit, where I found several words that fit the bill. Ayana was one of them, which means road, as well as the course of the sun.
How did you find the cast of the film?
Gangadhar: After I finished writing the script, which took me about 3-4 months, I gave it to a friend from the film industry, Ram Manjjonaath, who turned casting director for us. He knew a lot of theatre artistes and I gave him the freedom to find who he thought were perfect for my characters. He brought me a bunch of people, whom we auditioned and I think we have found the right ones. There are a whole lot of other characters as well in the film.
So, the film is about a software professional?
Gangadhar: More precisely, it is about a software entrepreneur.
How much of the story is autobiographical?
Gangadhar: Honestly, some of it is. I have had my own share of experiences. I had gone through a similar phase of trouble and grind in life as Aditya (Deepak's character) in the film, but it is certainly fictional work, as there wasn’t that much of drama in my life. But yes, I did add some personal experiences to the script.
Deepak, did it help that you are actually an engineer?
Deepak: Well, I have worked in software marketing, but what I think helps the most, as an actor, is a director who actually understands what he wants. Gangadhar had that clarity. Getting into the skin of the character, especially when he is completely opposite to what you are like in real life — in that, Gangadhar was of immense help by being honest with me when I performed, which let me give him options to choose from. The confidence that he instilled in all of us has helped us come this far.
Is there a disconnect between theatre and cinema?
Deepak: I find that very interesting and have heard Michael Caine saying that theatre is like operating with a scalpel, while film is operating with a laser. It’s that minute and subtle, versus theatre where you are talking to 300 people. I wouldn’t say that the acting is fundamentally different, but the range of expressions and subtlety required for films is vastly varied. It’s a different craft altogether. It did help that I have quite a bit of experience in theatre.
What has been the learning experience for you?
Deepak: This film is about a man who is chasing his dreams. We are all told to dream big, but as we grow up we realize that we cannot dream big enough. And when you do dream that big and go after it, what are the repercussions, what becomes your true happiness — career or family? This is very traumatic for someone to do and when you put your heart against something like that, whether you succeed or fail, it does impact you a lot. For me, the biggest challenge was to portray this trauma as an actor and that was the biggest learning for me to be able to modulate that over a period of two hours and give it to the audience.
What about you, Apoorva?
Apoorva: I have been in theatre as well and as far as I am concerned, my learning was that cinema is a vastly different ground. The acting had to be more subtle and natural, yet vary within that depending on whether it was a wide-angle shot or a close up. It did help that we had several workshops before we went on floors, during which we were made to experience our characters. Gangadhar was absolutely sure about what he wanted to extract out of us and that was my biggest learning.