Film industry throws its weight behind a Kannada pre-feature film

A bunch of techies sitting together in a chai shop hit upon the idea of making a film on a unique subject — the alpha state of consciousness. But unlike most such conversations, Rakesh Raaj (co-director, story, dialogues, actor), Arun Ramkumar (executive producer, PRO), Narasimha Murthy G (producer, VFX editor), Vinay A (director, screenplay) and Yogeshwar Gopal (co-producer, associate cinematographer) actually took it forward.The result — Alpha, a 35-minute short film that has been officially selected for the Meraki International Film Festival, and has also been submitted to the Bengaluru International Short Film Festival.
The makers — none of who have any formal film training — are calling Alpha a pre-feature film. Ask them what this means, and Arun says, “We had decided that once we were done with the short film, we will take the concept forward and make it a full-length feature film. We designed the script in such a way that it will grow to be a film.”
Shot over eight months across Bengaluru, the short has received immense support from Sandalwood folk, thanks to its script. So, Charan Raj has composed the background score, Vijay Prakash has recorded a song, Srinagara Kitty plays a psychology professor in the film, Ninasam Sathish, Sruthi Hariharan, Sanchari Vijay and Radhika Chethan have recorded for the documentary portion, there is a guest appearance by Pradeepa, and Puneeth Ba has designed the poster. And none of them charged them for all this.

Another things that sets this film apart is that a documentary is woven into the film. “The documentary comes at the crux of the film, when Srinagara Kitty’s character is explaining to the protagonist that the alpha state of consciousness is common and everyone experiences it. This is when Sathish, Sruthi, Vijay and Radhika speak about their real-life experiences,” explains Arun.
Since the makers all have full-time day jobs, they shot the psychological thriller only on weekends. Apart from editor Ramisetty Pavan and Charan, the crew consists of all friends, many of who are techies, who have no formal training. To learn the ropes, the simply watched movies and figured it all out. In fact, Alpha was their biggest teacher. And the end product has left quite the impression on filmi folk.