Koli Taal movie: A simple ode to childhood and grandparents, soon on an OTT platform

Abhilash Shetty, who has made the heart-warming Koli Taal. (Supplied)

The heart-warming story revolves around an elderly couple, played by the adorable duo of Prabhakar Kunder and Radha Ramachandra, who acquire a rooster for the chicken curry they wish to cook for their grandson visiting from Delhi.

Their plan, however, is derailed when the bird goes missing. What transpires next is at the heart of the story.

“The characters are based on my real grandparents,” says Shetty.

But the “most difficult part” about finding the right cast was not only finding “the right faces”, but also finding actors who could speak Kundapura Kannada, a dialect spoken in certain regions of Udupi district in Karnataka.

He found Kunder and Ramachandra after almost two months of searching. “They loved my narration, and agreed to do the film without asking about remuneration,” says Shetty.

A Simple Story

Similar to the character of grandson in Koli Taal, Shetty, too, would visit his grandparents when he was working in Bengaluru.

“I studied at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, a boarding school in Shimoga district, and would visit my grandparents during vacations,” he says. “I continued to visit when I started working.”

Interestingly, it was during one such visit, as a young man working for Capgemini in Bengaluru around mid-2019, that he hit upon the idea of making Koli Taal.

A scene from Koli Taal.

Shetty was only two years into his job, but decided to quit to chase his filmmaking dream. He was 23 at the time.

“I decided to write the script for my first feature film at my grandmother’s home. It was the perfect place for it. I was isolated in the luscious greenery, there was no Internet or mobile network,” he recalls.

To Shetty, koli taal is more than just a dish, it is a metaphor for love. “Grandparents show their love in the form of delicious food, they love to feed us,” he explains.

In his case, his grandparents “always” kept a rooster to make koli taal for him when he visited them as a kid in boarding school.

“It’s sort of a tradition in the Western Ghats and the coastal areas of Karnataka to make this curry for special occasions or when important guests come home,” he says.

A scene from Koli Taal

“I took inspiration from this memory and started writing. Except for the twist when the bird goes missing, many incidents in this film are based on my childhood memories.”

Once he was happy with the final script, he shot the film in just 15 days; he was lucky enough to get everything wrapped up before the countrywide lockdown was declared in March 2020.

“We had a passionate young crew and were staying at the same place. So, it was easy for us to shoot without wasting time. We did a lot of homework, and shot many references before going for a final shoot.”

The pandemic delayed post-production work by almost a year, but when the movie was finally completed and screened at festivals, the response left him ecstatic.

“Audiences, film-enthusiasts, and critics around the world loved the film,” Shetty says proudly.

“Viewers could relate some moments with their own grandparents. It definitely touched a chord.”

Koli Taal soon on OTT platform VOOT

The film premiered at the New York Indian Film Festival in 2021. It also did the rounds of the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, and the Indian Film Festival Stuttgart, among others.

But back home in India, he had to grapple with the same issues that domestic indie filmmakers face — struggling to stand out amid the noise of mainstream cinema.

In May 2022, Koli Taal had a limited theatrical release in Karnataka — in Bengaluru, Shimoga, Mangaluru, Mysuru and Udupi. And yet, the film did not receive equal response from commercial platforms.

Shetty has faced tremendous challenges to get an OTT platform to release the film here in India, and says that festival films in general do not get any attention from mainstream streaming platforms.

For instance, though Koli Taal is currently available on Amazon Prime, it is only for viewers in the US and the UK.

“Many festival films don’t get good coverage because there are no big stars in them,” he says.

“Most people think these festival films are boring, and are made for a niche audience, though many of these films actually are entertaining.”

Shetty says several OTT platforms said they were not interested in Koli Taal because it was a Kannada film. “But the same platforms acquired other Kannada films with big stars and masala in them,” he says.

Koli Taal is finally going to be released for the Indian audience by the end of this month on VOOT.

“Somehow, the VOOT team loved our film, and they will serve it hot soon,” says a buoyant Shetty.

Hiccups over parental approval

Shetty did not get the opportunity to shoot anything in his teenage years, even though he was “very interested in filmmaking” since childhood.

The problem was in convincing his parents; they did not see a career in filmmaking. So when he resigned his corporate job to make his first short film, Crony, his parents were worried.

“They were worried as I am the eldest son. Even after my first short film, they were hoping I’d join an MNC,” Shetty says, recalling his parents’ reaction to his decision.

His response: He did not deviate from his path, and “kept making more creative short films” to learn the technical aspects of filmmaking.

“I polished my skills as much as I could during this time,” he says of his early years as a filmmaker.

The Shetty family was finally convinced last year when Koli Taal was released on the big screen in Shimoga.

“My parents felt that I made a right career choice,” says the filmmaker beaming.

Today, Shetty has reasons to be proud of, especially since he did not have a formal training in moviemaking. But even as he basks in his success, he remembers to pay homage to the gurus.

“Whatever I learned is from watching films and masterclasses of filmmakers,” he says.

And what about future? Shetty says he has two indie films in the pipeline.

“But the scale will be larger than Koli Taal.”