The message is loud and clear! The city is a brimming cup of true blue Bengalureans who live, love and celebrate the language of the state – Kannada. Be it digital content or live gigs, which are hosted across the city; letting their love for the language is reflective in their creative pursuits. We feature promising young professionals, who’ve woven the beauty of the language into the fabrics of their works...
An attempt to revive, refresh and relish: Conjuring up a team that did a first of its kind digital/ art campaigns in Kannada, Puneeth BA, founder of Poster Boy Art Studio, shares, “I started off by creating minimal posters for Kannada films and it went onto set an identity for me and introduce the art form to Kannada. There was an extensive work of nearly 800+ posters documenting major films from the Kannada film industry.”
The venture produced a digital web series campaign called The Kathe Project bringing back the art of story telling in crowded social media space everyday evening. The series was a major hit and had superstars Prakash Rai and Ramesh Aravind being part of it. Speaking of which Puneeth says, “ I think it’s the right time to tap on it and push the Kannada pride through our work.We don’t have to overdo it anywhere, but the soft pride can always be our key in works we do. Next, we plan to associate with Kannada theatre troupes across Karnataka for the same.”
Taking the similiar route is city girl and playback singer Sparsha RK. Her stint with a short film with friend Manasa Sharma is shaping up well. “The idea was Kannada short films movies have the potential on the global map. We have churned out three short films so far, which were well-appreciated online and off it. It feels great to put out something that adds value to the language of the state.”
For the love of...: While the message is to spread an innate flair for the language; popular Kannada rapper Karthik Gubbi also believes it is imperative to retain the original form of the language, while creating. “Rapping in regional languages has become very common. Now, there’s a lot of demand for it. Kids want to rap in Kannada today. It’s always been accepted well even amongst people who don’t understand the language,” he says.
Gubbi opines that artistes should to make their efforts to try to present the language in its original form or the literal form. “People shouldn’t make Kannada the topic of their music. Avoid colloquial references. My personal opinion is that it takes away the weightage in the language. A language like Kannada has such amazing literature words which can give such deeper meanings. Instead of using words like Maga and Macha. Macha is not even a Kannada word, but we all use it. Doing it in Kannada is one thing and doing it about Kannada in Kannada is another thing. Not a fan of the latter. But, if artistes wish to, they can. If something constraints you...If a language is a barrier for you, you might as well not put yourself these barriers.”
Crack-up and ponder: It is always a better idea to spread any message through mediums that don’t leave an iota of space for negativity or animosity. So, what better way than Comedy? “People are usually in a good mood at a comedy gig, so most relevant topics are taken sportingly,” begins Anup Maiya, an IT techie and pioneer of the Kannada Comedy Lab movement aka LOLbagh.
Over 70 shows later (within a span of a year and a half), the idea has proved to not be a bad one after all.”We wanted to make a difference and educate people to have fun, but by having fun and ensuring others around us do too. We are the only Urban group doing this, so a lot of young adults, working professionals and teenagers drop by to just see what it is all about.”
