Peeking Behind the Lens: In Conversation with Arvind Kashyap

The Kannada film Hostel Hudugaru Bekagiddare (Hostel Boys Are Wanted, 2023), directed by Nithin Krishnamurthy, revolves around the making of a short film. When the warden of the boy’s hostel is found dead one night, fellow hostelite and budding filmmaker Ajith (Prajwal B.P.) sees it as an opportunity. He hopes that the ensuing chaos and confusion over what to do with the dead body shall produce enough material to shoot a five-minute film. With its film-within-a-film structure, Hostel is profoundly self-aware of the craft of filmmaking itself. It takes us “behind the scenes” to show us what it takes to make a film, with the disorderly environment of the hostel becoming the perfect setting for the film’s orchestrated mayhem and ultimately a metaphor for filmmaking itself. 

The key to Hostel’s pulling-back-the-curtain technique lies in the role of the camera, which acts as a character and, by extension, so does the cameraman. Arvind Kashyap plays Nikki, the cameraman who is shooting the student film. His character is constantly in conversation with the characters he is shooting and occasionally even steps in front of the camera. Kashyap is also the cameraman of Hostel Hudugaru Bekagiddare. While the two films have different directors—Nithin Krishnamurthy, who directed Hostel and Ajith for the film within the film, which one character calls “the worst movie ever made in the history of cinema”—they share a cameraman. The self-reflexivity is apparent in Kashyap’s very presence, drawing attention to the making of both films and the essential artifice of filmmaking itself. The film flirts with different genres and modes—documentary and fiction, real and cinematic, truth and falsehood—to bring up interesting questions about the ethics and mechanics of filmmaking, touching upon topics like an editor’s role, emotional authenticity for performers and directorial control.

Having worked on Hostel Hudugaru Bekagiddare as well as recent Kannada successes like Kantara (2022) and 777 Charlie (2022), Kashyap has shown range, style and adaptability behind the lens. In this edited interview, Kashyap talks about his inspirations for Hostel Hudugaru Bekagiddare, filming close to a hundred characters for the film, the different shooting approaches used in Kantara and Hostel as well as Kannada cinema’s recent resurgence. 

(Featured image: Arvind Kashyap has shot Hostel Hudugaru Bekagiddare as well as recent Kannada successes like Kantara [2022] and 777 Charlie [2022].)

Recorded on 11 August 2023.

To learn more about recent Kannada cinema, revist Sucheta Chakraborty’s conversation with Raj B. Shetty and Santasil Mallik’s reflection on Babu Eshwar Prasad’s Hariva Nadige Maiyella Kaalu.