1973 - a short film that explores the transition of Mysore State to Karnataka

Falah Faisal | NT

Bengaluru: Most people today are ignorant of the fact that Karnataka once used to be called Mysore State. When the states were divided along linguistic lines in 1956, Karnataka wasn’t the name the state bore. But it was due to activism of cultural groups and poets that the state was renamed in 1973.

Samarth BK, a filmmaker and student of St Josehp’s, set his film on the days the state was renamed to portray the irony of a family going through divorce while the state is being unified. “On November 1, 1973 the state was renamed to Karnataka after a lot of struggle when the Kannada speaking regions of the country were finally united.

When I researched the subject I realised that there was very little knowledge of the incident and there are no films about it,” says Samarth who feels Karnataka doesn’t have strong representation in fiction the way Tamil Nadu and Kerala do despite having a strong culture.

One of the main characters in the film also works for a Sangha fighting to unify the state while failing to keep his own family together.

“Karnataka is looking for its own identity and needs representation. It is not just a tech hub where people come to work but has its own cultural significance and I wanted people to know about how the state came to be,” says Samarth. The short film 1973 can be viewed on his YouTube channel Confused Alien