THE PAINTER WHO MADE A BLOCKBUSTER MOVIE

'Story-telling is at the core of everything I do.'

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But he was always interested in the Arts and honed his artistic skills by writing, directing and acting in Tulu plays in the small towns and villages of coastal Karnataka.

He caught filmmaker-actor Raj B Shetty's attention in the pre-COVID years, and narrated the early contours of a comic story, set in a coastal village with a supernatural twist. Raj asked JP to flesh it out and give him a script.

JP rewrote the script 26 times after getting feedback from friends and colleagues, and the result is the blockbuster Kannada film, Su From So, that is drawing audiences to theatres from Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.

It will be released on JioHotstar this week.

Written, acted and directed by JP, the film draws inspiration from real-life incidents in his village.

Made for Rs 5.5 crore (Rs 55 million), it has collected more than Rs 120 crore (Rs 1.2 billion).

"After it was released in Mysore and Bangalore, when I saw the orange colour on the BookMyShow app (indicating that the theatre was nearly full), I was relieved. Plus, everybody started praising the film on social media. I did this Kannada film only to go to Bangalore and survive there."

What was the inspiration behind the unique title Su From So?

After meeting Raj (Shetty, producer) sir, my perspective on cinema shifted.

I started writing short films.

He encouraged me to develop one of my own stories.

After he heard the story over the phone for about four hours, he liked the idea and suggested I work on the humour, instead of the dark side.

I came to know about the genre only after I started writing the film.

The title Sulochana From Someshwar was chosen by Raj sir due to the ghost's origin from another village.

It seems you took a while to develop the story.