The balancing act

With a plethora of films that have not only been hits at the box office, but have garnered immense critical acclaim, filmmaker and actor Rishab Shetty is the novelty that Sandalwood needs. With huge successes like Kirik Party, Ricky and Sarkari Hi. Pra. Shale, Kasaragodu, Koduge: Ramanna Rai behind him, the artiste is all set to direct his next venture titled Rudraprayag. Rishab created a buzz online when he released the poster of the film, which intrigued the industry and audiences.

“The poster is out, but it’s too early to reveal more details about the film, which is a thriller. The story was written by me when I was in school. It has travelled with me since then and I’ve used the character that I’d written and now, I’ve announced it publicly,” says the actor-director. The poster shows the rivers Alaknanda and Mandakini merging at the confluence Rudraprayag and also interestingly, has a cheetah depicted at the bottom. Apart from this one, Rishab is doing a few other films too. “I’m doing one which is being directed by Giri, who worked on Kirik Party. It’s a comedy flick that will go on the floor in two months. Another one is a serious subject and we’re going to reveal more much later - there’s a special kind of promotion being planned for it with the usage of minimal posters etc,” shares the artiste.

As someone who’s a key change-maker in Sandalwood with his sensible content, Rishab has the credit of writing award-winning scripts too. “In the early 90s, there was a mix of content-based and commercial films that were balanced. But from the mid-90s, that balance went missing. They started seeing content-based films only as art films that could be sent to festivals and award shows. Only commercial films were looked at as mainstream. And I wanted to balance both content-driven and commercial cinema as I knew that both had strong audiences,” says Rishab, who impressed audiences with his performance in Bell Bottom, where he played a cop.

As for his friendship with actor Rakshith Shetty, it’s a well-known fact that Rishab and Rakshith, not only share a great professional equation, but are also great buddies off screen. Having worked on several projects together, Rishab says, “We don’t link our work to our friendship - the two are completely different things. We don’t do films just for the sake of friendship. We have another four to five films planned that we want to do.”

On the personal front, the zealous filmmaker is enjoying every minute of being Daddy to his little son. “The feeling of being a Dad is wonderful. In my life, I don’t get emotionally connected to anyone. I don’t have anything running in my mind apart from films! I don’t even put my attention towards other things. My wife Pragathi keeps yelling at me for being like this. But my son is spoiling me emotionally - if I don’t see him, my heart isn’t right! It’s very difficult if you get emotionally attached to someone!” smiles Rishab indulgently.