Fair & Lovely

Fair & Lovely (Kannada: ಫೇರ್ & ಲವ್ಲೀ Phēr aṇḍ lavlī) is a 2014 Indian Kannada romance drama film written and directed by D. P. Raghuram. Produced by Shilpa Ramesh under the banner Jade Plant Ventures, the film stars Prem Kumar as Manoj and Shwetha Srivatsav as Bhumika, a sex worker, in the lead roles.Vijay Raghavendra appears in an extended special appearance. The music was composed by V. Harikrishna who has also made his debut as a lyricist by penning one track for the film.

The film was released on 24 October 2014, to generally positive reviews from critics, who acclaimed the film's screenplay, narration, dialogues, cinematography and the performances of the lead pair, Kumar and Shwetha Srivatsav. The latter's performance won her the Best Actress at the 62nd Filmfare Awards South.

Cast

Production

Development

After the debacle of his directorial debut Cheluveye Ninne Nodalu, director Raghuram worked out on chalking out the screenplay for the story narrated by journalist Yathiraj. Upon questioning about the English-language title name for a Kannada-language film, the director mentioned that the title has both the English world "Fair" (referring to Shwetha) and the English word "Lovely" (referring to "Lovely Star" Prem). Having initially planned to name it Aparanji, he abandoned thinking it "would suit a more senior actor like Ravichandran more". Speaking of the theme of the film, he said "[It] surrounds Duddu (Money), Santhe (fair), Bili banna (fairness) and Nyaya (justice)."