Artha - film for communal harmony directed by B. Suresh

There is a conventional classification in Indian filmdom as commercial films and art films. Generally there is a perception that art films are made to grab awards. The very reason is that most of the time, such films are rarely released! But that is not the fact says B. Suresh, the director of film Artha - winner of this year's Karnataka State Film Award. In a celebration party early this week, he was explaining the intension and the problems his film is facing for the release. "We made this film for the people to watch, not for the award committee. Core of Artha is communal harmony. If our film fails to reach people our intension is lost. All artistes of this film are good performers with theater background but not salable by their popularity. They can't pull people to theaters and hence this is the concern of investments for the distributors and exhibitors. Artha is based on reality but that does not mean that it's a documentary. Is nothing less than a commercial film" explained B. Suresh.

As the soul of the film is communal harmony Artha has been shot in an ancient fort of Gulbarga where people belonging to different communities are living in the same place. The very reason for choosing this location is to portray the past glory and the present fact on the same plane. Though the story of the film is based on a family of North Karnataka, Suresh has not used their local language to make it more generic as this can be story of any region he says.

B. Suresh wanted to make this film back in 1996. But he could not find a producer. Last year when he narrated the story to some of his television Arundhathi Jathkar

friends, seven of them together arranged an amount Rs. 20 lakhs and in that budget he completed Artha. B. Suresh is planning to release this film soon. Starting Gulbarga, will come to south at the end. He and his producer friends have a unique idea of promotion by going to every doorstep of Gulbarga with the help of local theater groups. Today where people are fighting for cast and community such films are very much needed says B. Suresh. Will Suresh's Artha see a significant response? Lets all hope for the best by encouraging good movies and good moviemakers. If we don't encourage our people, who else will do?