Kannada actor Upendra is revisiting retro raaga

Kannada actor Upendra has a busy year ahead with two of his films readying for release. First up is Kalpana followed by Topiwala. The actor, who is currently shooting for Topiwala, feels that apart from the storyline, it’s the songs that one has to watch out for.

And after a look at the stills from the song, we couldn’t agree more. In the pictures, Upi’s look resembles that of singing sensation Elvis Presley; we get the actor to tell us what the song is all about. “The song Malli Malli Manchak Esht Kalu carries a retro feel to it. Even my costumes are designed accordingly and we felt it was only appropriate to design one on the lines of those worn by Presley. We finished the shooting in Chennai recently and Harikrishna’s music and Yograj Bhat’s lyrics are what made it a total fun experience.” The costumes have been designed by Deepa and the Presley costume alone has cost the producer around Rs25,000, we hear.

Shot at a beach resort in Chennai, the song not only features lead actors Bhavana and Upi but also comedian Raju Talikote. 70 foreign dancers have also been used for the song. Chini Prakash is the choreographer. The shoot of this song, on which a whopping Rs60lakh has been reportedly spent, spanned over four days. Apart from this song there are three other numbers in the film.

The entire shooting of the film is expected to end in 10 days. “The film will take some time to release and I am looking forward to it as I have involved myself in the script and the screenplay as well. It is a political satire and newcomer MG Srinivas is directing it. After completing this project, I will be sitting down to finalise a script for my next directorial. I will be able to speak about it in detail in September,” says Upi, having the last word, as always.