Why caste is hardly discussed in Kannada cinema: Bheemrao P on his acclaimed social drama ‘Hebbuli Cut’

Mainstream Kannada cinema has shied away from the subject of caste. For filmmaker Bheemrao P, it was essential to make sure that his debut enterprise didn’t get nipped within the bud. Whereas selling his film, Hebbuli Minimize, he referred to as the movie a young story of a boy’s dream to get a flowery coiffure. The movie is greater than that, however Bheemrao wished to generate buzz round his movie, earlier than anything.

“The second you point out Ambedkarism, a piece of individuals will distance themselves out of your film. Therefore, I harassed the truth that my film was a ‘commercially partaking social drama’,” he tells The Hindu.

Launched in theatres on July 04, 2025, Hebbuli Minimize made noise amongst a small crowd, largely comprising critics and followers of area of interest content material. The movie has seen elevated acceptance since its latest launch on the OTT platform Solar Nxt. “I see folks writing lengthy posts on social media about my movie. It’s getting mentioned in a number of boards,” says the director.

Hebbuli Minimize, set in Chandrabanda Village close to the North Karnataka-Telangana border, tells the story of the school-going Vinay (Mounesh Nataranga), who’s unruffled by the cruel realities of his environment. The movie’s battle revolves round Vinay’s want to get a coiffure just like Celebrity Sudeep from the 2017 motion thriller Hebbuli. Nevertheless, his dream is crushed by social bias.

Bheemrao was impressed by Dr Rajkumar’s coiffure within the 1979 motion drama Nanobba Kalla. The movie grew to become the place to begin of Hebbuli Minimize, however he wanted a latest phenomenon to draw the mainstream viewers. That’s how Sudeep’s coiffure in Hebbuli grew to become an integral a part of the script. In 2017, the coiffure was a craze amongst college students. A lot so {that a} disgruntled headmaster from Bagalkot wrote a letter to a salon requesting them to keep away from styling college students’ hair in that trend.

ALSO READ: School headmaster in Karnataka requests salon owner to refuse Hebbuli hairstyle to students

Again then, maybe not many imagined a state of affairs the place a boy could be denied the stylish coiffure due to the household he belonged to. “Even right now, folks aren’t snug about talking about inequality”, laments Bheemrao. “Many individuals, together with these from my circles, appreciated Hebbuli Minimize. However they weren’t prepared to simply accept the presence of unfair prejudice current in society,” he says.

“My movie is predicated on an actual incident. Possibly, these dwelling in metropolitan cities won’t concentrate on such injustice confronted by folks from decrease castes,” he says, including {that a} latest incident in Gujarat got here as a well timed validation for his story.

It was extensively reported that many years of prejudice ended when Kriti Chauhan grew to become the primary Dalit to stroll right into a barber’s store in Alawada village in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district. For generations, round 300-odd Dalits travelled to different locations for grooming as they had been denied companies by native barbers of their village.

A nonetheless from ‘Hebbuli Minimize’.
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association

Bheemrao continues to be discovering his voice as a filmmaker. He’s drawn in the direction of films that tackle societal points. For over a decade, filmmakers akin to Pa. Ranjit and Mari Selvaraj have spurred a motion in Tamil cinema with films that challenged caste-based discrimination. “Pa Ranjit could be very aggressive in how he conveys his displeasure in the direction of society. Mari Selvaraj tackles severe matters in a fascinating trend. I choose Mari’s movies over Ranjith’s,” he causes

He’s additionally an admirer of Marathi filmmaker Nagaraj Manjule. “His movies don’t attempt onerous to painting inequality, but they transfer you. That tells his calibre. I beloved his Fandry (2014). I may relate to the Dalit teenager’s struggle towards societal expectations. The ultimate scene, through which he throws a stone on the digicam, thereby breaking the fourth wall, is the director’s revolt towards the biased world. It had a huge effect on me,” he explains.

Bheemrao prefers churning out partaking tales primarily based on essential topics. “Prior to now, few Kannada movies on caste used melodrama to drive dwelling the message. This sort of method doesn’t work with the viewers.”

Bheemrao’s method to mix leisure with a message is obvious within the beautifully-shot tune, Haadu Hagalalle, in Hebbuli Minimize. “Thetune reveals the sentiments of the boy, who has fallen in love with an higher caste lady. It’s my approach of vouching for secularism as he goals of dwelling fortunately with the lady and her household,” he says, including that he’s at present writing one other “business” movie.