Indrajit Lankesh needs no introduction. The son of popular journalist-filmmaker, the Late P Lankesh, Indrajit too started off as a journalist. He worked with his father in the famous Kannada weekly tabloid Lankesh Patrike and heads it now.

The brother of Gauri Lankesh (who was assassinated in 2017) and award-winning director Kavitha Lankesh, Indrajit started off his journey in films as director with Tuntata. The film was not only a commercial success, but also won Indrajit the V Shantaram Award as the Best Director.

Monalisa (he won the Karnataka State Award in the best director category), Huduga Hudugi and Luv U Alia are some of his other films.

That is not all, Indrajit is also the man who gave Deepika Padukone her first break in films. He cast her as the leading lady with Upendra in his block buster hit film Aishwarya. “The moment I saw her, I knew she had it in her to be a star. She is great looking and has a great personality. She is also passionate about films,” says the director, who won the Filmfare Award in Best Director-Kannada category for Aishwarya.

The man, who is a permanent judge on the television reality comedy show Maja Talkies, is set to share another exciting announcement. “Before that I want to tell you that my film Shakeela is almost ready for release. It is a Hindi film which will be dubbed in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam.”

Shakeela, he explains, is a biopic about the adult film star from Kerala. The film has award-winning actors Pankaj Tripathi and Richa Chadda in the lead roles.

Indrajt is all prasie for Richa and Pankaj. “They have given their best. Pankaj has a role, the like of which he has never played before. I am a big fan of his and am bowled over by his acting prowess. The film will hopefully hit screens by the end of this year. Also, Shakeela is my tenth film, and my eleventh will be in Hollywood… Yes, I have been asked to direct a Hollywood film now,” beams the director.

He will be the first director from the Kannada film industry to direct a Hollywood film. “I cannot share details as yet. But everything is finalised on paper. All I can say now is that I will off the coming week to Morocco to select the locations. The film is again about a woman, and an Oscar- nominated actress has accepted to play the protagonist. Soon, we will announce everything,” he smiles.

Then he shares the story of how this project came to be. “The producer of the Hollywood film saw the rushes of Shakeela, was impressed and approached me. I can’t express how thrilled I am. I like exploring new horizons and now it will be Hollywood,” says the man who now shuttles between running his father’s tabloid and filmmaking.

He says he ventured into films as he has “always been lured by the visual media and was influenced by my father” and the films he made. In fact, his father inspired him to tell stories. “Journalism runs in my veins. So I would like to say journalism is my profession and films my passion.” Will he ever make a film on a journalist? “I would love to! And it will be on my father His ideology, dedication and integrity need to be told as a story.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Movies / by Shilpa Sebastian R / September 23rd, 2019