'Su From So': Meet The Motley Crew Who Make Up The Delightful World Of The Kannada Hit
The surprise hit has emerged as one of the Kannada industry’s biggest entries at the box office this year
The residents of a sleepy town in coastal Karnataka are jolted awake by a tragicomic incident one eerie night. This is one way to abridge the essence of filmmaker JP Thuminad’s hilarious Kannada release Su From So. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say the same about the triumphant consequences of the film. Raj B Shetty’s social horror, which was initially released in just 13 screens across Karnataka, is now enjoying a dream run at the box-office (collecting reportedly ₹36.8 crore India net over eleven days), quite possibly jolting the industry’s spirits.
The film, which weaves an intricate story about the sudden possession of a man by a female spirit, discusses misogyny, egotisms and communal friendships with a brilliantly light hand. Su From So, which comes as a shot in the arm to the Kannada film industry, is powered by a cast as sharp as its story. From the boisterous Ravi anna (Shaneel Gautam), a placeholder for that one prickly gentle giant we all know, to the fryums-loving Chandra anna (Prakash Thuminad), who possesses the power to always be present at the right place at the right time, Su From So turns on its charm through its characters.
JP Thuminad, who plays Ashoka, the wicked young man and the vessel of Sulochana’s ghost, has his roots in Tulu theatre, spanning over seven years. The goal was to entertain people through cinema and do justice to it, Thuminad tells The Hollywood Reporter India in an interview. Thuminad, who is part of Sharada Arts, a theatre troupe based out of Manjeshwara, picked actors from the group for the film. Manjeshwara is about 30 kms from Mangalore, placing it in the border of Kerala and Karnataka. Thuminad says that he based the characters on the people he has seen growing up in the town.
For Su From So, Thuminad was looking for a mix of theatre artists and fresh faces. “And a few others I picked through an audition. I needed new faces and people who looked like they were from a village. I took a lot of time to look for those specific faces. Wherever we went, we had so many people watching our shoot and I also picked a few of those people to act in the film.”
Prakash Thuminad, who plays the town auto driver Chandra anna in the film, is JP’s neighbour, friend, and troupe mate. he says it wasn’t difficult to get into the head of this village goofball. “He’s (JP Thuminad) been telling this story to me for a long time. I didn’t have a lot of trouble with improvisation for the role because the screenplay and dialogues were neatly written.” Deepak Rai, the actor playing Sathish anna, the only sensible cynic in the film’s delightfully excessive world, is also part of the theatre gang. Rai says he based the character on the everyday people he’s seen in his life. “In each city there have been various people I have seen and learnt from. The director would also help me understand that.”
This sort of is the vibe of Su From So, a film populated with characters riffing off each other in the strangest yet relatable of circumstances, often associated with small towns. In the middle of all the enjoyable chaos that Sulochana’s ghost unleashes, the village and the audience are silently introduced to a character that grounds the film’s fabric. Kannada actress Sandhya Arakere is Bhanu, the daughter of the ghost, who is summoned by the village to tie up loose ends. Arakere is poignant as a woman navigating abuse, loneliness and the unbearable pain of losing a mother, at 40.
Arakere, who has had roles in Raj B Shetty’s Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye (2023) and Toby (2023), was approached for the role by Shetty. Unlike her previous roles, which were fuelled by workshops, Bhanu didn’t require a lot of preparation, she tells THR India. She just had to look inwards. “I was quite nervous because I wanted to see if there were references to flesh out the role better. But they convinced me that we’ll go with the flow. We did have a small reading with a team, which gave me a lot of detail about who Bhanu really was,” she says. “I didn’t prepare for scenes, but I prepared a bit for who she was, why is she so soft. But the present-day Bhanu scenes were impromptu as we wanted it to be spontaneous.” Her scenes with JP Thuminad are some of the best in the film.
The film, which has created waves in the industry, joins a list of small films coming out of various parts in Karnataka, such as the Rishab Shetty production Laughing Buddha (2024), which was set in Shivamogga, and Mithya (2025), which was set in Udupi. It wasn’t JP’s intention to set the film in a Dakshina Kannada dialect, but it is just something he was familiar with. “I just wanted to make a movie. There are a few people from my native town, I wanted to base this film on. I was only thinking about how to do that well.
Prakash Thuminad believes it’s time audiences were told stories from different parts of Karnataka. “There are so many such stories all around Karnataka, and we see so many different personalities around us. How well you bring it in front of the screen is the key.”