Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

psychological thriller Psychological thriller is a genre combining the thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting. In terms of context and co ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

Sathish Ninasam Shiva, known by his screen name Sathish Ninasam, is an Indian actor who appears in Kannada films. Having made his film debut with ''Madesha'' (2008), Sathish appeared in small but significant roles in films like ''Manasaare'' (2009), ''Panchar ...

Sruthi Hariharan Sruthi Hariharan (born 2 February 1989) is an Indian actress and producer who appears primarily in Kannada language films. She debuted in a 2012 Malayalam film, ''Cinema Company'', and her first film in the Kannada cinema industry was '' Lucia' ...

crowdfunded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

Siddhartha Nuni Siddhartha Nuni is an Indian film director and cinematographer based in Mumbai, India. Early life Siddhartha attended high school at Sainik School, Korukonda and graduated in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He ...

London Indian Film Festival London Indian Film Festival is a film festival established in 2010 to showcase Indian independent film.Enakkul Oruvan'' in 2015. The movie was credited for inspiring a new wave in the Kannada film industry.

Plot

There are two main roles, one that is played out in the dream, and the other one, in reality, called respectively Nikhil and Nikki. The plot starts with the protagonist being in a state of coma and continuing only on life support. The film, from the beginning, tells two stories of the same person, one in colour and the other in black and white. Sanjay, a detective from the Mumbai police Crime Branch starts investigating the incident that caused the protagonist's (

Sathish Ninasam Shiva, known by his screen name Sathish Ninasam, is an Indian actor who appears in Kannada films. Having made his film debut with ''Madesha'' (2008), Sathish appeared in small but significant roles in films like ''Manasaare'' (2009), ''Panchar ...

) current state. While Sanjay is going through the protagonist's belongings he stumbles upon some scribbled notes and a mysterious pill. Meanwhile, the police capture two suspects and interrogate them. The story starts with Nikki in a village near Mandya, working as an usher/"torch-shiner" in a Bengaluru movie theatre owned by Shankranna (Achyuth Kumar). Nikki has insomnia and yearns for a companion. On one of his sleepless nights, Nikki is contacted by a drug dealer who gives him Lucia pills as a solution to his sleeping problems. This drug is said to have the capacity to help one dream the life they want but has the side-effect that upon discontinuation the same dreams turn into nightmares. With the help of the Lucia pills, Nikki starts seeing himself as being a successful actor called Nikhil surrounded by people he knows in the real world. Film actor Nikhil's life is depicted in black-and-white. Shankranna, the owner of the theater where Nikki works, had starred in a film in his youth funded by the leader of some goons who now want Shankranna to sign off his theatre for his debt. More events from the dream are followed by similar events in reality as Nikki falls in love with Shwetha (

Sruthi Hariharan Sruthi Hariharan (born 2 February 1989) is an Indian actress and producer who appears primarily in Kannada language films. She debuted in a 2012 Malayalam film, ''Cinema Company'', and her first film in the Kannada cinema industry was '' Lucia' ...

) who is a model in the dream and a waitress in reality. In the dream, Nikhil and Shwetha hit it off easily at the beginning but later friction arises when Nikhil expresses his discontent about Shwetha working in the film industry. Meanwhile, in reality, Nikki struggles to win Shwetha's heart, who rejects him first due to his low salary but later falls for his humble character. Shwetha's attempts to get Nikki educated and lead him to find a better paying job turns out to be futile and also result in the death of Shankranna in the hands of goons. Frustrated, Nikki chooses to leave Shwetha and continue to work in the theatre, despite the threats. Nikki redecorates the theatre and releases Shankranna's film to the audience. He later reconciles with Shwetha, who agrees to marry him. In the dream, Shankranna is kidnapped, and Nikhil rescues him with the help of the police. In the process, all of the goons are either arrested or killed except for the contract killer. Nikhil feels Shankranna is not safe with him and decides to fire him. Nikhil breaks up with Shwetha and sends off all his servants so as to be alone. Later, a visibly disturbed Nikhil finds himself in a trashed room. Nikhil gets hold of a torch and through its light sees his life as a "torch-shiner" projected on the walls of the room. Shwetha is now distraught with being in the limelight and understands what Nikhil had tried to tell her. Nikhil, the actor, meets Shwetha and tells her that he cannot decide if the present moment is a dream or reality but he is ultimately happy. Asking Shwetha to close her eyes, Nikhil jumps off the roof to the confusion of everyone present, including the contract killer waiting to kill him. At present, Sanjay with the help of the suspects performs a sting operation on the drug dealer and learns more about the Lucia pills. Meanwhile, Shwetha is caught in an attempt to kill Nikhil by pulling him off life support. During her interrogation, the whole investigating team along with Shwetha watches a re-run of an interview of the film star Nikhil. In the interview, Nikhil expresses his dissatisfaction of the stardom and reveals that he is actually color blind from an accident in his childhood. He tells the interviewer that he dreams of being a normal person and in fact, in one of his dreams he is a "torch-shiner" who gets no attention from people and is happily in love with the dream of his life. It also revealed that Nikhil and Nikki both had insomnia and both consumed the Lucia pill. Sanjay is now convinced that Nikhil is living in his own version of reality and chose to live in that dream rather than in the real world by attempting suicide. Sanjay gets Shwetha to act and behave like she was in Nikhil's dream, and acts himself as if he was a contract killer and shoots the comatose Nikhil in the head with an empty gun. Simultaneously, Nikhil, aware and alive in his dream world finds everything disappearing around him and is killed by a shot to the head. Nikhi wakes up from his coma to see the astonished doctors and Shwetha's relieved face. Thus, revealing that the character Nikki was an illusion whereas Nikhil was reality. At the end, we can see Nikhil, Swetha and Shankaranna (who was dead in Nikhil's dream) enjoying pizza (Swetha worked as pizza waitress in Nikhil's dream) while they operate the projector of an old theater. Thus revealing that it was film star Nikhil's dream to be a commoner like Nikki, and he achieved it through Lucid dreams.

Cast

*

Sathish Ninasam Shiva, known by his screen name Sathish Ninasam, is an Indian actor who appears in Kannada films. Having made his film debut with ''Madesha'' (2008), Sathish appeared in small but significant roles in films like ''Manasaare'' (2009), ''Panchar ...

as Nikki/Nikhil *

Sruthi Hariharan Sruthi Hariharan (born 2 February 1989) is an Indian actress and producer who appears primarily in Kannada language films. She debuted in a 2012 Malayalam film, ''Cinema Company'', and her first film in the Kannada cinema industry was '' Lucia' ...

as Shwetha *

Achyuth Kumar Achyuth Kumar is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Kannada cinema. Born in the town of Belur, in the district of Hassan and brought up in Tiptur. He graduated in bachelor of commerce from the Kalpatharu First Grade College, which was t ...

as Shankranna * Balaji Manohar * Hardika Shetty as Kamini * Bharath * Satish Kumar * Sanjay as Sanjay (Mumbai police) *

Rishab Shetty Prashant Shetty, known professionally as Rishab Shetty, is an Indian actor and film maker who primarily works in Kannada cinema. He is known for his critical and commercial blockbuster, '' Kantara'', for which he directed and acted as the main ...

as a police constable * Krishna as Deepak (Crime branch officer) * Aaryan Achukatla as Aryan (second lead/model) * Poorna * Ram Manjjonaath as a lawyer *

Prashanth Siddi Prashanth Siddi is an Indian actor who works in Kannada-language films. As of August 2020, he has appeared in seventy films. Career Coming from a lower income background, Prashanth Siddi was selected by Chidambar Rao Jambe to work in the theatre ...

as a suspect * Pia

Production

In December 2011 Pawan Kumar announced on the Web that his next project, after the success of his directorial debut film ''

Lifeu Ishtene ''Lifeu Ishtene'' () is a 2011 Indian Kannada-language black comedy film written and directed by Pawan Kumar. It stars Diganth, Sindhu Lokanath and Samyukta Hornad in the lead roles. Sathish Ninasam, Achyuth Kumar and Veena Sundar feature in su ...

'', was going to be ''Lucia''. For the next two months, he met quite a few producers and top actors and found it difficult to fund his film. That led Pawan Kumar to write a post titled Making Enemies on his blog. Three days after it was published, the response was so overwhelming that he decided to pitch the idea of inviting people to produce the film and Pawan Kumar initiated Project Lucia. Aditya Vikram Thoomati was crucial in making the bandwagon work. Fellow writer to Pawan , a newbie to Kannada cinema , Sai Prasad did his writing expertise through it. Lucia is notable for its use of

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

. It was funded by 110 investors who contributed to the project through a

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

page and a blog run by director-actor Pawan Kumar. It was the first

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

movie to bypass the traditional film financing model. The director initially offered the lead role to model turned actor

Diganth Diganth Manchale (born 28 December 1983), mononymously known as Diganth, is an Indian actor and former model who primarily works in Kannada films. Diganth made his acting debut in ''Miss California'' in 2006. He is a recipient of one SIIMA Awar ...

but he was later replaced by

Sathish Ninasam Shiva, known by his screen name Sathish Ninasam, is an Indian actor who appears in Kannada films. Having made his film debut with ''Madesha'' (2008), Sathish appeared in small but significant roles in films like ''Manasaare'' (2009), ''Panchar ...

, who has played supporting roles in many Kannada films. ''Lucia'' was made at a budget of . Kannada language television channel

Udaya TV Udaya may refer to * Udaya Pictures, a movie company in Kerala. * Udaya TV, a Kannada-language television channel * Udaya Manikya, a 16th-century king of Tripura Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest sta ...

bought the satellite rights of the film for . Actor Sathish Ninasam along with the music director Poornachandra Tejaswi visited colleges in Davangere to promote ''Lucia''.

Soundtrack

The music for the film and soundtracks were composed by debutant Poornachandra Tejaswi, and background score composed by Poornachandra Tejaswi, Monish Kumar M.K. and

Santhosh Narayanan Santhosh Narayanan is an Indian composer and musician in the Tamil film industry. Early life Santhosh Narayanan was born in Tiruchirappalli, India. He is the younger of two children. He was educated at RSK Higher Secondary School, Tiruchirappa ...

. The lyrics were penned by Poornachandra Tejaswi,

Yogaraj Bhat Yogaraj Bhat (born 8 October 1972) is an Indian Kannada film-maker, director, screenwriter, lyricist and producer. He is most known for the 2006 film ''Mungaru Male''. The film recorded the highest box-office collections in the history of Kannad ...

and Raghu Shastri. The album has seven tracks.

Release

The trailer of Lucia was released in February 2013, with the film releasing on 6 September 2013. PVR released the film on 6 September 2013 under their "Director’s Rare" category all over India. It was released across

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

,

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

,

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

,

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

,

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

,

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

,

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...

,

Surat Surat is a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Surat literally means ''face'' in Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of the river Tapti near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, it used to be a large seaport. It is now ...

, and

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

with English subtitles. ''Lucia'' was also set to be released in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

.

Critical reception

The critics praised the film. Anurag Kashyap tweeted "My birthday gift to myself would be lucia...". Actor Siddharth was "blown away" after watching the movie. He immediately called the director Pawan Kumar and praised him. ''Lucia'' was also in the race for India's official entry to the Oscars. The movie received positive reviews from critics. Well-known critic Baradwaj Rangan remarked, "An entertaining new Kannada film pushes the envelope even as it pays homage to the old way of doing things". Bookmyshow website said it is a landmark film for Indian cinema. Tribune praised the film story. The Hindu stated that ''Lucia'' is a new type of Kannada film.

Box office

''Lucia'' earned in satellite rights and in ticket sales through its entire run in cinemas, far surpassing its production budget of around . ''Lucia'' was also released by PVR Pictures in some cinemas outside Karnataka, fetching around from 13 screens in the first three days.

Awards

;

Karnataka State Film Awards Karnataka State Film Awards are the most notable and prestigious film awards given for Kannada film industry in Karnataka, India. These are considered the highest awards for Kannada language films. They are given annually by the Government ...

2013 * Best Music Director — Poornachandra Tejaswi ;

61st Filmfare Awards South The 61st Filmfare Awards South ceremony honouring the winners and nominees of the best of South Indian cinema The Cinema of South India refers collectively to the six distinct film industries based in Southern region of India namely Tami ...

*

Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...

— Pawan Kumar * Best Supporting Actor —

Achyuth Kumar Achyuth Kumar is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Kannada cinema. Born in the town of Belur, in the district of Hassan and brought up in Tiptur. He graduated in bachelor of commerce from the Kalpatharu First Grade College, which was t ...

* Best Male Playback Singer — Poornachandra Tejaswi – "Thinbedakammi" ;

London Indian Film Festival London Indian Film Festival is a film festival established in 2010 to showcase Indian independent film.3rd South Indian International Movie Awards The nominations for the 3rd South Indian International Movie Awards were announced at a press conference held at a five star hotel in Hyderabad on July 17, 2014. Actors Rana Daggubati and Shriya Saran, who are the brand ambassadors of SIIMA, we ...

* Best Cinematographer —

Siddhartha Nuni Siddhartha Nuni is an Indian film director and cinematographer based in Mumbai, India. Early life Siddhartha attended high school at Sainik School, Korukonda and graduated in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He ...

(Nominated) * Best Director - Pawan Kumar

Influences and cultural references

Director Pawan Kumar admitted to have taken influence from

Christopher Nolan Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Cinema of the United States, Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. ...

and

David Lynch David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, visual artist and actor. A recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 2019, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and the César Award for Be ...

. The dream and real sequences being shot in

monochrome A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, monochrom ...

and in color to differentiate between the two stories, like the Memento and Open Your Eyes to alternate between two plot-lines. The movie's relation with dream and reality and the interrelation between the two. There is also a scene where Nolan's movie

Following ''Following'' is a 1998 independent neo-noir crime thriller film written, produced, edited and directed by Christopher Nolan. It tells the story of a young man who follows strangers around the streets of London and is drawn into a criminal unde ...

is seen playing on a TV screen.

Requiem for a Dream ''Requiem for a Dream'' is a 2000 American psychological drama film directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher McDonald and Marlon Wayans. It is based on the 1978 novel of the same name ...

is also seen playing on a TV in the same scene which is also an influence as the movie deals with addiction. Apart from the cinematic influences, the theme of dream and illusion is also shown as an influence of the poem Nee Mayeyolago by

Kanaka Dasa Kanaka Dasa (1509–1609) was a Haridasa saint and philosopher, popularly called Daasashreshta Kanakadasa (ದಾಸಶ್ರೇಷ್ಠ ಕನಕದಾಸ). He was a renowned composer of Carnatic music, poet, reformer and musician. He is kn ...

which is quoted at the beginning of the movie. The poem is also partially contained in the lyrics of the song Nee Toreda Galigeyali in the soundtrack.

Home media

The film was released in Blu-ray, HD DVD, DVD 5.1, VCD Version From Anand Video Studio. It is the first Kannada film to be released in Blu-ray. The director, an advocate of alternative distribution strategies for indie filmmakers, was recently quoted as saying, "It’s time to set up your own virtual movie theaters on the World Wide Web which will be open 24×7 across the globe."http://dearcinema.com/article/pawan-kumar/3143

References

External links

* {{Pawan Kumar 2013 films 2010s Kannada-language films Indian independent films Crowdfunded films Kannada films remade in other languages Indian psychological thriller films Films about dreams Indian nonlinear narrative films Films about actors Indian avant-garde and experimental films 2010s avant-garde and experimental films

Plot

Cast

Production

Soundtrack

Release

Critical reception

Box office

Awards

Influences and cultural references

Home media

See also

References

External links