Topiwaala is a political satire

Director M G Srinivas, 27, is lucky to be making his debut with Upendra as his lead actor in the Kannada film Topiwaala. Srini (as he is popularly known), who has been a choreographer running his own troupe, has dabbled in event management, acting, making short films, RJ-ing and has even penned lyrics for a song in his debut film. 

As a radio jockey, he became popular as 'Blade Srini' through a programme he hosted for close to five years on a private FM radio station in Bangalore. 

The Kannada film Topiwaala, also starring Bhavana Menon, is releasing on Friday, March 15, 2013, across Karnataka.    

Over to Srini:

What does Topiwaala signify as a title?

The film is multi-dimensional. The title means different things to different people and under different circumstances. 

In villages, topiwaala means a story-teller and an entertainer. In the cities, people think of politicians who are always wearing their caps. People also relate cheating to this word. 

Actually, it is funny to hear people say that someone is trying to put a topi on the other (which means fooling or cheating in a lighter vein).

 Who is the real Topiwaala in the movie is part of the suspense of the movie.

What is the film all about?

Topiwaala is a political satire among many other things. The film has a bigger message, given the present political scenario in Karnataka or for that matter in India. 

The film tries to give a message about who is actually responsible for this sorry state of Indian polity and what is ailing our political system, in a funny way. We also have a funny song that lampoons our system.

What genre of film is it?

It is difficult to categorise this film. It is a suspense thriller with action comedy. 

There is an element of adventure in the film. I can't say it is drama as well because the film has all the elements.

How different is Topiwaala from Upendra's usual films?

The film has Upendra's style of screenplay with the usual twists and turns that is the characteristic feature of any of his films. Topiwaala will enjoy non-linear editing as has been the case with all Upendra's films. 

I have written the dialogues. We cannot compare Topiwaala to Super though the latter was also a kind of political satire. Topiwaala has a message told in a different way and is an attempt to tell the story quite differently.

How did you meet Upendra and how did this whole idea happen?

I am lucky to be working with Upendra in my first film as a director. I had made a 45-minute short film titled Simply Kailawesome that won an award in the Houston Festival. 

The film was based on a play called Typical Aarathi by the renowned dramatist, the late A S Murthy. Srinagara Kitty had done the voice-over and Chaya Singh had acted in the film. There was a lot of scope for me to experiment with the screenplay and performances in the short film. 

When Upendra saw this short film, he was impressed with my style.  He mooted the idea of us working together. We had a general discussion and many ideas were discussed. 

Upendra sir gave me a line that caught my attention and that's how we started working on the idea. The basic discussion on the script itself took more than a year before we could go on the floors.

Is Topiwaala going to be a futuristic film like Super?

I wouldn't say that Topiwaala is a futuristic film. This is going to be a bit quicker than Super. When it comes to showing love, we couldn't have gone at the same pace and also we wanted to provide some relief to the audiences in between.

What kind of artistic freedom did you enjoy while working with Upendra?

I enjoyed 100 per cent freedom to create what I wanted as a director. He allowed me to hire the cameraman, stunt director, choreographer and the editor that I wanted. 

I wanted his guidance, me being a newcomer. I have learnt so many things. I learnt various aspects of screenplay from Upendra Sir and especially on what it takes to maintain the tempo or giving a thriller movie a different touch. 

I was backed by the producers also and I got whatever I wanted in terms of the casting and the equipment.. They didn't want me to waste anything.

What was the problem with the censors?

We anticipated trouble from the censors in one scene. So we had planned alternative shots at the shooting stage itself. What we have done is modified the scene and so the censors have mentioned this in the certificate. 

 There were no cuts that the censors suggested. We are lucky that we didn't get an 'A' certificate as the censors are pretty stringent when a film has an item number as they think the film will give a different meaning if there is such a number.