Puneeth BA, a 24- year old Bangalore based Techie, Short film maker, Content Creator and an Ideator for digital platforms, mostly known as “Poster boy of Sandalwood” in social media circles for his Kannada Minimal Posters. He is known for his witty lines on social media, ideations on digital platforms, packaging them and selling it to audience. He has recently launched his production house “Poster Boy Art Studios” to enter into untapped domains in Kannada market and its first project- “The Kathe Project“, which has garnered attention from media and internet went on to be a huge success. Raise your brows when you hear “TKP” was the first non film content creator project in Kannada on Facebook at a huge scale.
Puneeth has acted in two films, “Mithayi Mane”– directed by yesteryear actress “Aarthi” and “Thutturi” , directed by National award winner P Sheshadri. He has also anchored TV children’s news show- “Putani Varthe”. He had designed a website at a tender age of 12 years and his Minimal Posters were featured in International Dubai- based magazine-“The Indian Trumpet”. His short film “Foreign Returned ” went viral on the internet. He was one of the “Hemmeya Kannadiga ” awardee from Radio City that awarded people for their contribution to Kannada and Karnataka.
In conversation with Puneeth :
Who has been your inspiration at different stages, helping you to achieve your goals?
There are too many. Since my childhood I was into acting, creative writing, directing, anchoring stage events, debates, arts and crafts. Sports is one thing I am very bad at. My parents and teachers have encouraged me to be a part of lot of things. It was in “Hanumanthanagara Bimba“, a children’s theatre troupe run by AM Prakash, son of veteran theatre artist AS Murty , that all my energies were streamlined and given a proper framework. I have been associated with it for almost 12 years.
What made you create “Minimal Movie Posters Kannada”?
A Facebook friend had posted on his wall minimal posters of Hollywood and Bollywood. But there was no sign of posters for Kannada movies. That is when on an evening, I simply thought to give it a shot and opened a minimal posters page on Facebook. The initial posters were literally bad, but because the idea was new and creative space was still evolving for Kannada in social media , the idea could sell to many film buffs easily. I made nearly 10 posters a day which went on to 800+ posters which is probably a mad number coming from an individual designer working on that domain. But 4 years later, it turned out to be my identity card for film industry. I thank myself for not giving up this madness and quitting it midway.
Being an Engineer, do you find life monotonous with computer and file works? If so, is it why you chose a different arena?
“Ah!”, I didn’t choose it as such at any point of my life. I started to do short films at an young age, say 6th or 7th grade of schooling, I would shoot it with my webcam. It was during my high school days, I got into theatre, short films and poster making. Of course my friends and colleagues are friendly, fun-loving, and highly encouraging. I am basically like two different persons running in two different worlds, both creative and corporate. I don’t mix up these two things.
Tell us about “Poster Boy Art Studios” and your role in it.
I have been on social media for almost 10 years from now, starting as a columnist for a portal, blogger, short film maker, campaign designer, television projects, script pitches, production houses. But it’s only after Engineering, I started going out to meet new people, getting associated with them, interacting and getting right kind of guidance and mentoring from the creative industry. That is when I started “Poster Boy Art Studios“, wanting to try newer things and collaborating with new people.
What was your inspiration behind “The Kathe Project”?
The Kathe Project did a first kind of webisode based social media initiative, trying to bring a joy of narration, sharing and listening to stories in the evenings amidst the mental chaos we have created for ourselves. The initiative ran a month-long campaign that featured stories coming up from a mix of narrators every evening by both celebrities and non – celebrities. The webisodes were opened and closed by superstars Prakash Rai and Ramesh Aravind respectively.
