As a storyteller what would you do best? Tell the stories you've experienced, heard first-hand or something you've imagined. All three are perfectly valid but Rishab Shetty chose the former for his fourth film, Kantara, based on the Bhoot Kola performance, a traditional ritual performed in service of the daiva, the local deity. Shetty comes from a family of landholders who lost much of their holdings after the Karnataka Land Reforms Act of 1974. "Suddenly, from being the local zamindars, we became lower middle class," say Shetty whose father then went to Mumbai, Pune and Delhi in search of jobs before becoming an astrologer and setting up a practice in Bengaluru. His father had helped many people retain their small holdings in their village, so when Shetty returned to his village, Keradi, to shoot Kantara, it was great meeting his father's fanboys. It was also odd, because he was playing Shiva, who comes from a family of Bhoot Kola performers, who conventionally come from Scheduled Castes. There is an extraordinary scene in the movie where the landlord shakes his character's hand in seeming friendship and then turns to an assistant later asking for his hands to be washed because he touched that "dog". Ironically, when Shetty was playing Shiva and being served tea outside the house in a coconut container, an old villager familiar with his situation teased him about it. Kantara was shot "two minutes away from my house" says Shetty, who spent much of his childhood playing bit parts in the Yakshagana in his village. His performance at the end is a triumph of an inner journey that he cannot describe. "It was a deeply spiritual experience for me. Cinema is like God for me," he says. "Making a film is a privilege," he adds. For Shetty, the daiva is the bridge between humans and nature, and for the forest dwellers of Dakshina Kannada its service is a way of life. Recently Pushkar–Gayathri's Tamil series Suzhal: The Vortex on Amazon Prime Video set its murder mystery against the backdrop of the enthralling 10-day festival, Mayana Kollai, by a community in the Nilgiris that worships a local goddess Angalamman. Moral of the story: the more local you become, the more global your work. Kantara, originally in Kannada, has already made over ₹150 crore at the box-office. Its producer, Hombale Films, also backed the blockbusters KGF and KGF2.

Rishab Shetty

Mum’s the Word

Kantara’s Magic