777 Charlie director K Kiranraj Exclusive: Rakshit Shetty and I adopted 'Charlie' the dog

By Richa Barua | First Published Jun 3, 2022, 1:38 PM IST

In an exclusive interview with Asianet Newsable, 777 Charlie's director K Kiranraj talks about his experience of working with a bunch of adorable dogs and more.

Bookings for Team '777 Charlie' have opened online, indicating that the picture will have a strong start at the box office. According to reports, the film had a strong audience reaction, with concerts selling out in cities like as Bengaluru, Mysuru, Hubbali, and Shimoga.

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On June 9th, a day before its release, the film will have premiere screenings in 21 cities throughout India. The trailer for '777 Charlie' has piqued the public's interest, and additional screenings have been booked for the Bengaluru premiere alone owing to high demand.

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After 'KGF Chapter2,' '777 Charlie' is the next pan-India release from the Kannada industry, and there are high hopes because the film is about a guy and his dog named Charlie. Asianet Newsable spoke to the director K Kiranraj, who gave us some insides into the 5 years' journey while making the film, 777 Charlie. The movie featres Rakshit Shetty in a significant role. The film's music is composed by Nobin Paul.

How was your experience/journey working with a dog?
It was a great experience and the most memorable one. It has been an unforgettable experience working with 777 Charlie team for 5 years now. As a pet lover, I was very clear about saying yes to working in this film only because it’s a dog-based subject, and did not think much about the script. I would say working with Charlie the dog has been an amazing experience. She is very innocent and doesn’t know why she was being instructed to do a certain way; she doesn’t know that she was being portrayed as a character. We have learnt a lot from her. From Charlie, I have learnt that I can achieve anything I want if I pursue patience.

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How was it working with a non-human actor?
As I mentioned, Charlie didn’t have any idea about being made to perform as an actor, she was very naïve. We have trained her for 2 and a half years to perform the way she has. Getting a shot from Charlie has been very different and sensitive…We had to be prepared with treats and toys to perfect a shot from her; we had to keep track of her moods. It wasn’t like a regular planned and scheduled film shoot. Nevertheless, this process has given us a lot of happiness, and Charlie indeed gave us everything that we needed for the script.

How many dogs were involved?
We have trained 2 dogs for the movie. One is a puppy which is seen 20% of the cinema, and for the majority of the story you’ll see an adult dog.

Tell us more about the training of the dog...
It took almost 2 and a half years to train the dog. In normal cases, a puppy needs to be at least 6 months old in order to understand commands. But, for this script we needed a much younger puppy, hence it has been quite a task to train and feed commands to this little puppy. We took little and slower steps in doing so..at a time we would feed 4 orders to her, complete a shot and then repeat the process. Hence, It took around 3 years to complete the film. Apart from that, we had a special training for Rakshit and adult Charlie to build a bond.

We had a full-fledged trainer called Pramod for this process and two of his assistants. They were present throughout the filmmaking process and the journey with us.

How did the idea of a sidecar dog come as we don't see it on roads anymore?
During the scripting stage of 777 Charlie, I had read a few articles about sidecars, pictures of people with sidecar dogs on social media and some documentaries about the same. I felt it’s a great concept for a dog that’s a travel companion, hence immediately decided to adopt it in the movie.

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There seems to be a reference to Yudhishtir and his dog from Mahabharata in the trailer. How similar is Dharamaraj (Yudhishtir) of Mahabharata and Dharma of Charlie?
When I was writing the script for 777 Charlie, two stories had inspired me a lot. One was an article about a man who travelled the world with his dog, and another was an incident about a dog following his owner to Shabarimalai on his Yaatra. These were travel-related concepts, just like my story, and as I researched more inspirational content, I found out that the start and end of Mahabharata was due to a dog. I started exploring deeper about it and learnt that at the end of Mahabharata, when Dharmaraya lost everything and started his journey towards the Himalayas, his dog follows him throughout that journey. This is the inspiration behind the character name ‘Dharma’. Characters and incidents from Mahabharata also inspire many bits and moments from the movie.

There was a dog in your short film in Katha Sangama. There is a dog in your debut full-length feature film. Will we see animals as constant in your upcoming movies too?
Yes, there was a dog in Katha Sangama too; there is in 777 Charlie and will be there in future projects as well. I am a pet lover, and many dogs that I have come across in my life have changed my perspectives and me as a person. Some moments you’ll see in the 777 Charlie movie are inspired by my own real-life experiences. I would like to say that the concept of ‘dog’ will remain throughout my cinema journey.

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