An infestation of troublesome red ants in his home is what prompts Govindaiah (Dattanna), a senior citizen, to call for a pest control service. Despite his best efforts, Kumara (Mahantesh), the technician, cannot sell a higher-priced ‘package’ for multiple pests to Govindaiah, so he does the needful for the ants.

The elderly man, though, refuses to make an outright payment, telling Kumara to return a week later and receive the pending dues if all was well with the service rendered. What happens when Kumara comes back a week later is the crux of the 17-minute debut short film by Rajesh Ramaswamy, which dropped on YouTube on August 21.

Iruve, according to the filmmaker, is a situational comedy that follows the aftermath of the pest control service in a home in Jayanagar. It also stars Anirudh Acharya, Sonu Venugopal, Rohith Srinath, among others. “Though Iruve is a Kannada short film, we believe that it will have a wider audience as the story is universal. The characters are highly relatable,” says Rajesh.

Iruve is the debut production of The Script Room, a Bengaluru-based writers’ hub that Rajesh founded, and was shot with an entirely local cast and crew. Talking about casting Dattanna as Govindaiah, the filmmaker reminisces about his initial interaction with the veteran actor.

“I remember the first time we approached Dattanna with the story, he said, ‘I like the story, but what is your main ‘uddesha’ (motivation) to make this film?’ This was a loaded question. But the only honest answer was, ‘Just for the fun of it’. And yes, we had a lot of fun making it. We are hoping that everyone has the same fun while watching it, which is why we have made it available on YouTube for anyone to watch it for free.”

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