When director Srinivasa Raju chose to release his film Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi on Independence Day, he took a massive gamble. For starters, he had not released a teaser or trailer of the film, choosing only to give audiences a taste of the music in the film, even though his leading man Ganesh had not had a hit in a while. It was also only a week after Duniya Vijay’s Bheema had shown signs of box office success, after a very dull 7 months for the Kannada film industry. The chance that Srinivasa Raju took paid off and the film not only went on to become a runaway hit, but also completed 100 days at the box office recently.

Srinivasa Raju: Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi - a film for the entire family

The film is set to drop on OTT this week, with Sun NXT announcing that it will make Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi available from November 29, 2024. OTTplay spoke to Srinivasa Raju about the film’s success. “Audiences have been appreciative of seeing ‘vintage’ Ganesh in a fresh love story. Also, they were fed up with films that were all about violence, sex, dark colour palettes, cinematic elevation, and loud noises. Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi was a welcome break from these patterns – a film that the entire family could watch; that is what I have been told,” said Srinivasa Raju.

Although his gameplan paid off, wasn’t it a risk to release the film without giving audiences any inkling of what it is about? “Honestly, without a trailer a film may not reach its intended target audience. But with Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi, I did not want to give audiences a glimpse and then leave it up to their imagination to weave possible scenarios and outcomes. If you look at social media, every time a teaser or trailer comes out, it is dissected in terms of the look and feel of the film, characterisation, etc. Since Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi is a romantic comedy, in which music plays a major role, I wanted that to be our calling card. This was a practice a few decades ago, when songs were the driving force of romantic movies. I wanted the film to look fresh when people see it on the big screen and that’s the strategy I adopted,” explains the filmmaker.

Using the music to attract audiences turned out to be the masterstroke, with all 6 of the songs composed by Arjun Janya catching the fancy of audiences, especially Dwapara. “In all my films, I have always been involved in the music from start to finish, including the choice of singers, composition and orchestration and lyrics. Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi was no different and perhaps got extra care because it is a love story. I was sure that having multiple songs would not be an issue, as Indian audiences have watched and made successes of films with far more, like Devdas, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge, Hum Aap Ke Hain Kaun, etc.,” he says.

Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi came at a good time, one could say; the Kannada film industry had a massive slump and audiences were desperately looking for some entertainment. “Two years ago, itself I knew that the industry would, sooner or later, go through this kind of a slump. I predicted this and knew that people would get tired of films following a certain template. I could figure out the stories of most films by just looking at the teasers and trailers; so then where’s the novelty? I thought that there would be audiences like me out there, who are looking for something different and I wanted to make a film for them – that is what Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi is,” he signs off.

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