after completing the story, he sent the manuscript to girish karnad in india who got in touch with pattabhirami reddy and s. g. vasudev, a painter, both with madras players, a madras-based amateur acting group. impressed by the theme of the story, reddy decided to produce and direct it. vasudev became the art director and also brought in tom cowan, a photographer with the commonwealth documentation division, australia, as the cinematographer. cowan, in turn, brought his friend steven cartaw as the editor. the initial casting for the film was done from the madras players before choosing the rest in bangalore.