Shivu Adda is once such fan clubs, which was started by group of youngsters who adore the actor. In an exclusive chat with NewsKarnataka, Naren, one of the founders of Shivu Adda speaks about their plans:

Launch of Shivu Adda

I was a hardcore Kannada film fan. But during my engineering days, watching Kannada films was not cool among youngsters. I used to feel the pain when my friends would watch Tamil film and Hindi films. So one fine day, I, along with some like-minded friends decided that we must do something so that our youngsters feel that watching Kannada films are cool as well. We all were fans of Shivarajkumar and we decided to start Shivu Adda as an online forum. Those days only Viggy.com and Chitraloka.com were online portals for Kannada films. We wanted to talk about Kannada films on our forum and also had a website launched. However, the website has been closed now, but the forum is very much active even now.

Promoting only Dr Raj’s family

One of the main criticism which we receive is that we promote films of Dr Rajkumar’s family. However, that wasn’t true because we promoted films of all stars because Kannada films are our priority. Yes, we are fans of Shivarajkumar, but that does not mean we hate other actors.

Non commercial

Shivu Adda is non commercial. We do not collect money and we do not pay to promote the page. You will notice that we do not have as much likes as some of memes pages have in Facebook. We don’t pay for likes. But looking at the trend today, we feel we too much go commercial because that will keep us alive. We do not want to earn money and buy properties from this forum. Our definition of commercial means money just enough to pay our staff.

Pride Events

We started pride events few year ago wherein we would book multiplex screen and watch Kannada films. The first film we premiered under this was Gandugli Kumararama. We also did Pride Event for films like Satya in Love, Jackie, Anna Bond, Bhagyada Balegara and Jogayya. Stars like Yash, Ajay Rao and Aindrita Ray have also come to watch films in Pride Events as fans. The main aim of this was to promote Kannada films in multiplex. We would see fans of Rajinkanth bookings screens in other states. We wanted to do it here in Karnataka for our stars.

Release of Kannada films outside Karnataka

We feel that Kannada films have a big market outside Karnataka. But unfortunately our own people are not trying to tap that market. We decided to do something regarding this. We released Andhar Bahar in Andhra Pradesh and got good response. I think we have a good market, especially in Andhra Pradesh and Telengana. The number of theatres in these two states is highest in India. They do not have the required movie feed and hence depend on other languages. If we release Kannada films on regular basis, I think the whole industry will stand to gain. If we get some support from producers, Shivu Adda will release the films outside. If producers can invest an amount in releasing the film outside, Shivu Adda will give all the required support and time for them.

Social work

We have not restricted ourselves to just promoting Kannada films. We have a library in a village in Raichur, wherein we have huge collection of books. We are also giving scholarship to needy students. We also visit HIV infected children and sponsor their lunch.

Tagaru Promotion

We have been promoting almost all Shivarajkumar films from a decade. but we took up aggressive promotion for Tagaru because of producer K P Srikanth. He is an hardcore Shivanna fan and he knows the importance of promotion. Due to his support, we could promote Tagaru in such a way. He has always stood by us and supported us. He was co producer of Myalri as well as Shiva. He also supported us then. For Shiva, we had audio launch at different areas in Bengaluru. If we get good producers standing by us, we can make wonders and K P Srikant is an apt example for this. Another reason was of course Suri-Shivanna combination. Their last film Kaddipudi was a cult classic. We were sure that Suri will not disappoint Shivanna fans with this film. Therefore we promoted the film in unique way. We, along with Raj Dynasty organized Teaser launch event. We also had a DJ Night of Tagaru recently, wherein we only played Kannada songs. I feel all these promotions along with great content of the film has resulted in blockbuster success of Tagaru.

Future Plans

We want to organize more Sandalwood DJ night out. People grooving to Kannada songs will be a cool concept. We also want to start Fans Day concept, wherein fans can meet Shivarajkumar. We want to do it in a formal way, wherein we will take selected fans and make them meet Shivrajkumar. Instead of fans going to shooting spot and troubling the makers, this would be a better idea. We also want to release Kannada films outside Karnataka. Kannada actors should promote Kannada films in other parts of Karnataka. They should organize press meets there. We see Allu Arjun coming to Bengaluru and taking part in press meet. Our stars should also do the same. We want to release Kannada films in border areas of Andhra, Kasargod, Coimbatore, Kochin, Solapur and Kolhapur, where there are lots of Kannadigas.

Shivarajkumar’s thoughts on Shivu Adda

We have never used Shivarajkumar’s name for our benefit. He knows that. We have been his fans and will always keep Shivu Adda at that.

We want to see him as our hero. We have maintained a good relationship with him. He takes our feedbacks seriously. If we dont like any film, we tell him directly. He takes our feedback positively. He values us. Having said that we value our relationship with him and we make it a point to not take advantage of the relationship. He is rarely invited for our events, despite the equation we share. We want it to remain as a star-fan relation.

Fan Wars

This is a common thing in all film industries. I feel compared to others, Kannadigas do not involve in fan wars so much. They are matured enough. However there are few, who indulge in fan wars. The best thing is to ignore them. In our forum, we have some Shivanna fans, who are upset with us, when we promote other star films. Similarly, other star fans accuse us of being bias towards Dr Rajkumar family. We do not indulge in fan wars. We are clear that we are here only to promote Kannada films. If we get support from film producers for other stars, we will promote their film in same way as we promoted Tagaru.

Shivanna in remake films

I am personally not very happy that Shivarajkumar is acting in remake. He had abstained from acting in remakes all these years and I feel that he should have not acted in the remake. That is my personal opinion. I also had an healthy discussion regarding the same with Shivanna as well as film’s director Vasu. However, it is his decision at the end of the day and we as fans must respect the decision.

He told us that he was touched by Mohanlal’s character in the original and that was one big reason why he was okay doing Kavacha. He has a challenging role in the film and we are happy he is not doing a commercial potboiler remake.

The Villain with Sudeep

The Villain is next big film of Shivarajkumar. I am sure that the film will be huge hit. With Sudeep acting with Shivarajkumar, the film has only got bigger. I am sure that the film will do well outside Karnataka as well.