This is for the first time that the Kannada film industry has come up a biopic of Padma Shri Vijay Sankeshwar, titled “Vijayanad” the owner of VRL, a leading private road transport company for commercial goods and logistics, the owner of largest fleet of commercial vehicles.He also owns a leading newspaper and a news channel in Karnataka. His dream, which started with a single vehicle in 1976, has grown to over five thousand goods vehicles and over three thousand passenger vehicles across India today, making him a record holder.
The star cast and the producer of the film Anand Sankeshwar were in Delhi recently. They went to the famous Hanuman Temple in Connaught Place to seek blessings. Later . The film crew met the press at Le Meridien.
While addressing the media, Anand Sankeshwar said, “The film is about the journey of my father Vijay Sankeshwar and the story begins in the year 1950 from his birth. Vijay is my father and I am Anand, his son. My father started his business with just one truck when he was only 26 years old along with my grandfather, played by the Veteran Anant Nag (Dr Anant Nagarkatte).I was only one year old at the time,” informed his son Anand Sankeshwar, who is the chairman of VRL group and the producer of the film. “My father Vijay Sangeswar left the family business and started his business in 1976 as VRL. Currently we are serving over seven lakh business customers. We handle tens of thousands of tonnes of goods annually, including agricultural and agro-related products, textiles, ready-made garments, pharmaceuticals, footwear and consumer goods. We are operating from Kashmir to Kanyakumari with 1500 branches. In Delhi only we have working from more than 60 locations”he revealed.“There were many people who approached us for the rights to make a biopic but the sincerity and the script of Rishika and Nihal convinced us that they are the right people to do justice to my father’s journey so far. Their talks, which started as a 30-minute meeting, lasted for more than eight hours. My father liked the way they described the screenplay and the ideas for it. After that we produced this film under the production of our company.” added Anand.
Nihal spoke about his journey from an anchor to his first debut film ‘Trunk’ and how he and Rishika came up with the idea of making the biopic on the legend. “There’s a common phrase in Karnataka. Instead of booking a bus ticket, they say ‘book a VRL ticket’. Before approaching Vijay and Anand Sir with the concept and idea of the film, Rishika and I did a lot of research on both of them. Their journey has been an inspiration for so many. Life events are covered in this movie. The film focuses on their struggles.99 percent is the reality One percent is used by the director for creative freedom and design for the film. The film is not a docu- drama, rather there’s cinematic liberty in the film. We researched for six months and created the script and met them with a proper presentation. After the meeting they gave us a dictation of 150 hours and we condensed those 150 hours into a film of two and a half hours”. Nihal said.
Bharath Bopanna used to work in a BPO, then in an MNC. He got a chance in the world of modelling and then films. For playing Anand Sankeshwar’s character, he actually met his employees and found that they had been working in his company for the past 20 or 30 years and didn’t intend to change the job. “The film is about the beautiful bond between a father and his son and how they built this empire together”, said Bharat.
Siri Prahalad has a theatrical background. “I just wanted to be a part of this film and playing the role of Lalitha Sankeshwar was a dream come true!. Lalitha Ma’am is an epitome of strenth and courage and had been a pillar of strenth during family’s hard times and I drew a lot of inspiration for my role from her”,Siri informed media.
About the Film
Directed by Rishika Sharma the film tilled ‘Vijayanand’ is all set to release on 9 December in 5 languages Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam,the film stars Nihal R playing the titular role. ‘Vijayanand’also stars Siri Prahalad playing Vijay’s wife’s role and Bharath Bopanna, playing his son Anand’s role. The stellar cast includes Anant Nag, Ravi Chandran, Prakash Belawadi, Vinaya Prasad, Archana Kottige and Anish Kuruvilla in pivotal roles. This biographical film is being prepared by producer Anand Sankeswar on behalf of VRL Film Productions The music of the film is composed by National Award winning composer Gopi Sundar. Keertan Poojary and Hemanth have done cinematography and editing respectively, while the art and costumes have been designed by Rishika Sharma.
Vijay Sankeshwar started his journey from a humble beginning in Hubli, Karnataka and today owns VRL Group of companies. He is the Chairman of the company along with his son Anand Sankeshwar. He is also the owner of Vijaya Vani newspaper in Kannada language and a news channel called Dighvijaya 24×7.Vijay Sankeshwar was awarded Padma Shri by the government of India in 2020.
Co-ordinated by – Addon Media Services
Photography-Jaqgjeet Singh
