Recent Kannada hits show that even out-of-the-box films will be appreciated: Nithin Krishnamurthy

Bengaluru: Director Nithin Krishnamurthy says he is aware that a genre-defying film like "Hostel Hudugaru Bekagiddare", would have been impossible if not for the "beautiful high" that the Kannada film industry is going through.

"I think of late, at least for people like me, it’s a good time to be doing Kannada films. The recent success of films like ‘Daredevil Mustafa’ and ‘Aachar & Co’ has put confidence in every new filmmaker that we can do out-of-the-box content and it will be appreciated," says Krishnamurthy, an engineering graduate-turned filmmaker, who made his debut with the film.

Krishnamurthy is reluctant to slot his film. He says it can be called "found footage comedy". "I suppose it can be called that because 90% of it was shot with handheld cameras." Like most found footage horror genre films, in "Hostel Hudugaru…" too, events unfold in the span of a night, he says.

But when the hostel boys come face to face with their 'horror”, they take viewers on a laughter roller-coaster ride. The makers were having such a blast that A-listers decided to join in the fun. Stars like Rishabh Shetty and Divya Spandana as well as "Lucia" director Pawan Kumar, among others, signed up for cameos.

"Star cameos helped us unleash a different kind of chaos in the hostel. We were all newcomers and people would not have recognised us. But when a star came into this universe, it heightened their expectations," says Krishnamurthy.

Rakshit Shetty’s Paramvah Studios helped the director take the marketing of the film to another level.

"I have always believed that a movie has to be marketed well. A lot of good films are not marketed well. People know about their existence only after they come to OTT platforms and then they say, 'I should have watched this in theatres'. We did not want this to happen to 'Hostel Hudugaru…' Marketing is such an inevitable thing right now that if you do not market a film, people think it's not a good film,” says Krishnamurthy.

While thinking up creative ways to market the film, the team discovered that the market itself is ripe for dark comedy as well as sarcasm.

“We started off with a lot of promos where we were trolling ourselves. That is when we got a hint that people are ready to accept this kind of humour,” adds Krishnamurthy.

The supposedly college boys’ humour does not require you to be a college-going person to enjoy. Perhaps it is because Krishnamurthy, who began his career assisting another genre-bending film, "Lucia", has dipped generously into hyper-local cultural and political references for his punch lines.

The success of "Hostel Hudugaru…" also highlights another shifting trend in the Kannada film industry.

In the first half of 2023, the industry was seeing a lot of big-budget pan Indian efforts like "Kabza" and "Kranti". But the films, in their bid to win a wider audience, alienated themselves to local audiences.

Perhaps that is why post July, many directors, especially first-timers, chose not to go all out with their films.

Krishnamurthy says his choice was quite clear. To make it click in other regions, "Hostel Hudugaru…" had to have “local fixes” and not just dubbing.

"Also, the humour had a lot of pop culture references and it is not everybody's cup of tea. That’s what we thought,” adds Krishnamurthy, who says he decided to wait and see how the film is accepted in Karnataka.

His strategy seems to have worked. Once the film hit the bull’s eye in the Kannada market, Krishnamurthy says he immediately found backers to bankroll his Telugu remake, "Hostel Boys".

“The film requires extensive dubbing – we had to dub 400 to 500 voices. Telugu dubbing itself took us around 20 days. That's how much effort it needed. The context also has to be rooted in Telugu popular culture. We had to find creative partners to give us those inputs,” says Krishnamurthy.

The film’s success in Telugu industry has opened up many other doors, says Krishnamurthy, without having to go the "pan Indian" way.

“We are in talks to get this film remade in Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil,” he adds.

Considering how he floated a production house with some of his friends because he thought he would not find backing for his experimental film, Krishnamurthy is happy with how things finally turned out.

However, the success of the first film is not always a guarantee that the ride would be easy the next time.

"The next film is always a struggle because it is a new set of challenges, people, story and screenplay. It doesn't always have to be financial. It can be artistic. It can be logistic. And it can also be marketing. We cannot promote the next film the same way we did ‘Hostel Hudugaru…’ So, I think there are going to be new challenges every time no matter how successful your earlier films were,” says Krishnamurthy.