Chakravarthy (2017 film)

Cast

Development

The film has been under production development since early 2008. Script and dialogue writer Chintan who had finally succeeded by choosing his "mentor" Darshan as his lead actor for the project. Chintan had previously collaborated with Darshan as a writer for the films such as Saarathi and Ambareesha. For the financial aid, he chose Saarathi producer Sathyaprakash to invest in his new project. Reportedly, Darshan had been paid an advance by Sathyaprakash to star in the film after he completed Ambareesha film. The film was in development hell throughout the year 2015 as Darshan got busy with his previous commitments. In early 2016, the project was revived with the producer Sathyaprakash dropping out from the project due to undisclosed reasons. Another producer, Anaji Nagaraj took over the project in May 2016 and announced the official launch of the film would be on the 24th of the same month.

Casting

In 2014, Chintan, along with producer Sathyaprakash, approached Darshan to star in the lead role for which he signed in and gave his dates only after completing his projects like Ambareesha and Jaggu Dada. Upon his availability in April 2016, the film crew went on with the process of casting. Actress Anjali was cast for the leading role in April 2016. But soon after, after the official launch of the film at Mysore, she walked out of the project citing issues with the team which got irked due to her delayed presence for the shoot. In the same month, the team roped in actors Auditya and Srujan Lokesh to play important supporting roles with the former being selected to play a cop role. Darshan's brother-director Dinakar Thoogudeepa was chosen to make his acting debut as an antagonist through this film. After the ouster of Anjali, the female lead search ended up with Deepa Sannidhi chosen to make her comeback to Kannada films after a brief hiatus. Actor-turned-politician Kumar Bangarappa was added to the star cast in September 2016 to play an antagonist role. According to the director all the shots featuring him would be filmed in Malaysia and his schedule would start from Mid-September 2016. Actress Ishita Vyas was signed in to feature in an item song for the film.Yash (actor) in Fight sequence.

Filming

After the official launch of the film on 25 May 2016 at Mysuru, the filming began on 26 May with a huge set erected at the Premier studios. Darshan's first look of sporting a vintage 1980's looks was revealed soon after the shooting began. After wrapping the first schedule involving actors Deepa Sannidhi and Srujan Lokesh, the team released the first look of the film with Deepa sporting a retro look, clad in a sari. Her character name was revealed as Shanti and that she would be an important part of Chakravarthy's life. The filming went on at a brisk pace until early September when the shooting was stalled due to the Cauvery river dispute in Karnataka. To express solidarity, Darshan suggested the team to refrain from shooting during that time. The team flew to Bangkok for three days to shoot some song sequences. The next schedule involving actors Darshan, Kumar Bangarappa and Srujan Lokesh were canned in Malaysia. In October 2016, a poster showing Darshan in a blonde hair look was released and received positive response.

Music

Arjun Janya has been signed on to compose the original score and soundtrack for the film. Arjun was being told to bring the retro effect in his soundtrack so as to recreate the 1980s-90s era. For this, he roped in a Mysore-based "Bharath Brass" band who are more popular for their Mysore Dasara cultural activities. A song titled "Rani Rani Mumbai Ki Rani" was recorded using all the traditional instruments including trumpet, euphonium and old style guitar.

Soundtrack

Arjun Janya composed the film's background and scored for its soundtrack. Lyrics for the soundtrack was penned by V. Nagendra Prasad and Umesh. The soundtrack album consists of five tracks, including one theme song.