UDV Venkatesh: A trendsetting film editor in Sandalwood

A film is like a child. Its birth, development, and release all follow a similar pattern. Step by step, delivery in the form of a story emerges and unfolds. This point has seen the work of many outstanding individuals. Finally, all of the film's material makes it to the editor's desk.

The pile of footage created by the director's ideas and the cinematographer's effort is jumbled. What about putting it all together, preserving only what is necessary, and cutting it short for a set period of time? It takes a lot of effort. An editor must have watched a film more than a hundred times by the time it leaves the editing table in its final form.

Watching the same thing over and over again is misery, no matter how good the content is. However, it is the editor who adds the final touch to a film rather than getting bored, without losing patience or dynamism!

The Kannada film industry has a large number of editors. People from here have created a name for themselves in India's film industry. The negative reels had to be cut and assembled earlier. Now there is a digital format. One of the most well-known editors in the Kannada industry is UDV Venki.

Venki is originally from Tumkur's Kottihalli village. Venki moved to Bengaluru after completing his second PUC at Siddhartha College and began working as a photocopier for a private company. Later, he was also in charge of supplying bread. Venki was always fascinated by art ever since he was a child. When he was in class 10, he received a state level prize in a 3D painting competition.

Venki, who adored Vishnuvardhan and Darshan, used to draw their pictures from the newspaper. He used to utilise calligraphy to write the character designs of Kannada films in ads. As a result, the boy's interest in photography was lost in front of the Xerox machine, between the smells of bun and bread? But his spirit would not let that happen.

KM Prakash is the current leading editor in the Kannada film industry. Venky's sister got married to KM Prakash's elder brother. So Venkatesh was brought in as Prakash's assistant. For one and a half years, he sat behind Prakash and observed his work. "From dawn to dusk, Prakash worked tirelessly. He stayed on the computer all night after waking up and began experimenting with the concepts he had learnt," said Venki.

"He used to add some footage and blend them to spark people's interest. Prakash understood there was an eager worker within me even back then. I was tasked with creating trailers for a variety of movies," he added. Along with the movies he was working on, trailer work for other films began to arrive. Venky created many movie trailers while working as an assistant for movies like Sarathi, Mylari, Brindavan, Virat, Ambareesha, Rajahuli, Bahadur, and Ranna.

One of the songs from the film Paipoti, directed by Ram Narayan and choreographed by Ramu, was delivered vocally without the use of any instruments. Compiling it was a difficult task. Venki completed the task successfully and then edited the entire film.

Meanwhile, Venki experimented with editing on Navneet's Karva, Crack, Dasaratha, Bakasura, Kariappa's Chemistry, Samyukta-2, Striker, 5G, and other projects such as Rajamarthanda, Abbara, Shambho Shivashankar, and Half. Gentleman, starring Prajwal Devaraj, was also released. This was, without a doubt, Prajju's most important film. Venki was the one who made it a success.

The beginning of lyrical videos

In Kannada, Venki was the one who introduced the idea of lyrical video. He completed both Mr. and Mrs. Ramachari's and Ranna's lyrical video production at the same time. Lyrical videos then developed into a craze that has lasted to the present day. When Shailaja Nag of Media House saw Tyson's lyrical video, she called Venki and offered him a job. He has also created lyrical videos for various D Beats songs.

What does UDV stand for?

"While working on the film Rajadhani with senior director KV Raju, he asked me what my name was. No one will be able to recognise you if you simply say Venkatesh K.J. He suggested adding something else," said Venki. Umesh, Devraj, and Venkatesh are three long-time buddies. They used to dress alike and walk together. Venkatesh added UDV to his name as a symbol of friendship.

VFX is usually not done by compositors. They send it to another person to add some flair. There is no such discomfort if Venki is entrusted with the assignment. He is an expert in Photoshop, After Effects, and other software in addition to editing! He is known a dedicated worker who works for days without looking at the clock. UDV Venkatesh is a rare technician who lives with his wife Premanjali and son Punarv.