Shooting a Kannada film in 18 hours!

Director Prashanth (left) who made a Malayalam film Bhagawan last year with Mohan Lal in just 19 hours is now planning to make a Kannada film in 18.

Well known Kannada film producer and cinematographer Anaji Nagaraj (right) who produced several notable Kannada films like Shashtri, Snehaanaa Preethinaa and Jaaji Mallige is the producer.

The film is titled Sugreeva and stars Shivaraj Kumar, Yagna Shetty and a number of established artists of the Kannada film industry.

Shooting for the film will begin on October 11.

"The concept, story, planning and execution of the Kannada film will be entirely different from my Malayalam film," said Prashanth as he addressed the media along with the film's producer Anaji Nagaraj.

"This will be an unprecedented event in the history of Kannada cinema which has completed 75 years last year. Shooting a film in 18 hours will be a historical milestone in Kannada," said the producer.

The shooting will start at 6 am and end at 12 midnight. All the artists are asked to be present two hours before the shoot. Rehearsals will take place a day before the shoot at the same venue. The venue is a special set designed by Ismail at Raja Rajeshwari Hospital along the Bangalore-Mysore Highway.

The creative technical team headed by Prashanth will have ten well known directors like Om Prakash Rao, Pramod Chakravarthy, Maadesh and P N Sathya.

The story is written by the creative team of Anaji films and screenplay by actor-director Pramod Chakravarthy. Ram Narayan has written the dialogues while the musical composition and background score is being handled by Guru Kiran.

Anaji Nagaraj said that eight separate sets have been erected in the same location to facilitate the shooting of the film to be completed at break neck speed. The film will be shot in seven other locations which have been identified already and which are in periphery of the hospital.

The crew include 10 make-up artistes, 10 costume designers, 30 assistant directors, six still photographers, 10 production managers, 40 camera assistants, 60 production assistants, 120 light assistants, 20 art assistants, 30 set assistants, one stunt master, eight fighters, one dance master and 600 junior artists.