FOR 23-YEAR-OLD Chinmoy Kashyap who hails from Assam, making films was a natural choice. “My father is a reputed playwright and my mother is a singer, so I developed an affinity for the world of theatre and filmmaking since my schooldays,” recalls Chinmoy, who later shifted to Mumbai and enrolled in a private film institute to learn the ropes of direction.
Kashyap has almost finished shooting his debut film, Some Sugar Please starring actors Urvi Singh, Kalpana Rao and Vijay Vikram Singh (the voice of Big Boss), with only a few montage shots remaining to be shot this month. Scripted by PV Snehal, this psychological thriller has already got the biggies like ZEE5 and Netflix interested. We had a chat with Kashyap regarding the film. Excerpts:
What is Some Sugar Please all about?
It’s a psychological thriller that deals with how a girl, who suffers from bipolar disorder, tackles the disease. It becomes all the more relevant in the context of the lockdown when we have witnessed a spike in the number of mental illness cases. In most cases, we fail to recognise the problem and try to conceal it over the fear of social rebuke. Also, in small towns and villages, there’s a taboo around mental diseases with people taking the help of the charlatans in most cases. The film has been mostly shot in Delhi with a few scenes filmed in Assam too.
As an outsider in Bollywood, did you struggle?
Well, the struggle is definitely there. Since I literally knew no one in Bollywood, I had to send out a few emails to some big production houses about my film. But they never responded. It took me nine months to get a financier. But there are many success stories from Northeast, including actor Adil Hussain, singer Papon and composer Anuraag Sakia. So, one must not lose hope and work hard.
What kind of films do you want to make, and is there any film you currently are working on?
I want to make psychological thrillers and romcoms. Recently, there were cases of mob-lynching by the moral police in Assam, and I plan to make a film around it. I have already started writing the script.
Do you think the lockdown and post-COVID-19 period will be tough for young Indie filmmakers?
On the contrary, the lockdown has thrown open more avenues for small production houses who are creating interesting content for the OTT platforms, where there’s no nepotism or pressure from the producers. Movie theatres won’t attract the kind of audience it did, and that will make OTT platforms even more popular media.
sharmishtha.g@newindianexpress.com
@sharmidas