Crew of 'Lucia', first public funded movie promote film in Mangalore

Mangalore, Jun 30: A promotional event was held by the cast and crew of 'Lucia', the first public-funded Kannada movie, at Cinepolis multiplex at City Centre mall here on Sunday.

The movie is directed by debut director Pavan Kumar who had previously directed the Kannada movie 'Life Ishtene'.

A unique aspect of the film is that it was made on a limited budget of Rs 50 lakhs, which was raised online over a period of 27 days, by people not known to the director.

Addressing mediapersons at the event, Pavan Kumar said that he had posted an idea about 'Lucia' on the social networking site Facebook hoping to raise funds for the making of the movie. “The response was overwhelming and we managed to raise Rs 50 lakhs from people who were keen to help us. There are about 110 stakeholders who have funded the project,” he said adding that 'Lucia' was slotted to premiere at the Indian film festival in London to be held in July.

The music director of Lucia Poorna Chandra Tejaswi from Mysore is also a debutant in the film industry, and has composed the soundtrack of a movie for the first time.

Satish B is playing the lead role for the first time in a movie, although he has played supporting roles in other movies.

“The speciality about this is that several people became involved with the project during its making. Several youngsters also posted their videos online, after watching the video of a song we posted online. Some even gave us feedback as the movie progressed,” he said.

Lead actress Shruthi Hariharan from Kerala said that she gained a lot from the shooting experience of Lucia. “The director is brilliant to work with, and thanks to Lucia, I have signed two more films,” she said.

Hardika Shetty, a young actress from Mangalore, has a special appearance in the movie. The audio track of the movie also features a bonus track sung by Dr Nitin Acharya from Mangalore.

Lucia is likely to be released in the last week of July.

The debutant singers in the movie Naveen Sajju, Ananya Bhat, Udith Haritas, Bappi Blossom and Arun were present on the occasion.

Regional head of the multiplex Satish Kumar and unit head Keerthan Shetty were also present.