The short film, at its core, looks at the equilibrium between life and death.Savitha Sastry has been recognized in the world of Bharatanatyam for her technical prowess for over the three decades. In 2012, Bharatanatyam danseuse Savitha Sastry and her writer husband AK Srikanth stunned the world of classical Indian dance with their thematic presentaton ‘Soul Cages’ on stage. Today in 2024, they have attempted the same production in the form of a film and it has already received more than a million views.The short film, at its core, looks at the equilibrium between life and death. The deeply philosophical tale is portrayed through a denouement that is easy to understand, stunning visuals, and an extremely moving narrative. Apart from Savitha Sastry, the film also features noted actor Rupesh Tillu (Ship of Theseus, Ophelia) in an avatar he has not been seen in before. Savitha Sastry shares her views on the success of her recent production.1) What has been the response from the viewers on Soul Cages?It has been phenomenal! I think, anyone that has watched the film has come out deeply affected, possibly even more so than the stage version twelve years ago. With over a million views, I think it would rank amongst our top viewed films.2) It is difficult to get such phenomenal views on a dance production focusing on classical dance per se. To what would you attribute this success?In case of Soul Cages, I would immediately attribute it to the story. Writer AK Srikanth (also the Director) had penned a very powerful script, and I think the creative team knew right from the start that we were working on a potential winner. The success was because the film conveys that story, and classical dance is one of the elements that contributes to telling the story, rather than being the reason of its existence itself. In fact, we ensured that the story is above all else – the actors, the dance and the music. 3) What is in the pipeline for 2024?We are working with a script as we speak – it is a very different genre from ‘Soul Cages’ – in fact from anything we’ve done in the past. We are also working on a potential project for children; something that’s been on our minds for a long time now. There is also a documentary feature we are looking at – on the lost dance forms of India. Hopefully, 2024 should see quite a bit of this coming to fruition. 4) Could you elaborate on your role in safeguarding traditional dance forms, especially in the context of contemporary dance trends?I think the role I am trying to play is in taking traditional dance to an audience that is not conversant with it – both in India and abroad. The way we do it is to take novel stories not based on religion or mythology – which tends to be the case with most traditional repertoires. The dance form itself has existed for hundreds of years – so it definitely does not need safeguarding! However in my opinion, there should be no need to fuse it with contemporary stuff as classical dance is capable of delivering any content by its own innate grammar. In a way, through my films, that is exactly what I am attempting to say.5) How has the shift from the stage to the screen been? Do you plan to get back to stage with your dance productions?The shift from stage to screen in my case was born out of two facts – one, we wanted to archive our stage productions and two, if the idea was to evangelise classical art then the digital world has a reach that stage can never have. Stage and screen have very different dynamics – on stage it’s a much more connected experience with the audiences, and any performer certainly wants that. Digital/ Films give a far greater reach, but with a screen between the audience and the performer. However, I don’t think I have any plan of getting back to stage in the foreseeable future given the volumes of digital productions I am working on.6) What is the creative process of Mr. AK Srikanth- from writing stories to directing the productionIt all begins with the script – Srikanth takes his own time in conceptualising a theme, but once it’s clear in his head, he writes it out fairly quickly. Most of what he writes is inspired by true life incidents – but he fictionalises it in a way where it’s difficult to fathom who he is talking about. The story itself is then transformed to a screenplay – at which point the rest of the team gets involved – for the music, the locations, the cinematography and so on. Srikanth is usually very clear about how he would like the film to be – and expresses his thoughts with a fair amount of detail to the crew and cast. So when he comes on sets, it feels like we have gone over the sequence many times. As long as we stay true to his vision, he tends to be a director who allows innovations on sets – but if something strays off his vision, he tends to be very quick at culling it out.
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Soul Cages receives more than a million views within a month of its release
