It is said that the most challenging thing for any director is to convince Malayalam super star Mammotty to agree to work in a non-Malayalam film.

But Abhay Simha has managed to do the impossible. The young Kannada director, a graduate from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII, Pune), got the actor to star in his film titled Shikari. Konkana Sen is being approached to play the female lead in this film.

The film is being produced by Mangalore based industrialist N R Shetty and script by Simha. In fact, it was the script that bowled Mammootty over.

Simha's first directorial venture Gubbachchigalu was selected for the Indian Panorama Section last year. The film was also screened at the International Film Festival in Goa [Images] in the same year. The film bagged the Best film award at the New York film festival besides being screened at many prestigious International film festivals.

So far, Simha has made 19 documentaries, 10 short films and two music videos. "I believe in good cinema which is both entertaining and sensible. And no, I don't believe in abstract films, as I believe a film has to reach out to the common man," says this young director.

Simha is a great fan of legendary director Girish Kasaravalli. "I derive all my inspiration from him. He too was a student of FTII. I have seen all his films and am awe-struck by his brilliance. As I am motivated by him, I decided to concentrate on Kannada films rather than work in Hindi films,' he concludes.

Text: R G Vijayasarathy