Mysuru:  “Soaps being aired on television have brought down the number of cinegoers to watch quality movies as a result of which only cheap entertaining movies are being favoured by the youth today,” bemoaned National award winning Director P. Sheshadri.

Speaking at an interaction held at Patrakarthara Bhavan here yesterday, Sheshadri recalled that theatre and cinema were the only two providers of visual entertainment for people till the advent of television, the soaps of which have made people getting glued to the screen with no outdoor entertainment.

Continuing, Sheshadri again recalled that several good movies of yesteryears had run with packed houses for 100 days and beyond, but today many movies can hardly run for 30 days. He expressed happiness in more Kannada movies being produced but many of them are lagging behind in quality. He observed that novel-based movies directed by great Directors like Puttanna Kanagal, Girish Karnad and Girish Kasaravalli were well appreciated by people who even today look forward to good movies, Ondu Motteya Kathe and Thithi to cite a few of recent ones.

‘I prefer making movies on current topics and never crave for an award. Now I have made a movie on Gandhiji to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Gandhiji which is titled Mohandas in three languages Kannada, Hindi and English which is likely to be released on Oct. 2.

The movie is an adaptation of the novel Papu Gandhi, Bapu Gandhi, written by Boluvaru Mohammed Kum which centres around the childhood days of Gandhiji. Paramaswamy and Samarth have essayed the roles of Gandhiji and Shruti as Putlibhai. The movie is shot in Porabandar, Rajkot and Bengaluru, disclosed Sheshadri.

Sheshadri and child artiste Paramaswamy were felicitated on the occasion.

Mysore District Journalists Association President C.K. Mahendra and General Secretary K.J. Lokesh Babu were present.