Browntown – Part 2: Trailer + NY premiere
Continued from Part 1…
Having bagged the role, it was now time for me to flesh out the character. The producers and the director had already decided on the look for Ravichandran – they wanted the quintessential elements of a Kollywood hero: the big hair, the mustache, the paunch, the south yindian yenglish accent. If Mohanlal had been in their budget, he would’ve been my first recommendation, since Srinivasan from Company was the first thing to come to my mind. Then again, if Vasan, Kartik, or even Vijay had been here, I would’ve suggested them instead of myself. I remain wondering to this day if they’re disappointed I couldn’t bring in the paunch.
Knowing further that my character would be the main comedic element in the script, I was determined, and pretty adamant about not making Ravichandran a caricature. Sure, he could have his quirks, but South Indians have been the brunt of too many jokes in movies, and I expressed this concern to the producer, Sudha Narasimhan, and the director, Deepti Paul, to which they willingly agreed and were more than comfortable with letting me mold the character as I wanted. I also played around with the idea of giving him an accent that would be a mix of his South Indian English and his “wanting to fit into America” english. It’s a subtle difference that I’ve noticed in many Indian people in the US. Certain words and phrases tend to come out with an American accent or with more of an emphasis, which could work with Ravichandran, since he’d had 5 years to acclimatize himself to his surroundings. And finally, to make the character look a little older, I found myself rummaging thru my father’s wardrobe and found a pair of suspenders and a couple of ties with American flag colors and coats which I thought would suit the character nicely. Ravichandran had been born.
A short script for the trailer had been written, and the director, Deepti Paul, would involve me for input on ideas and feedback, which was very gracious of her. I’d find myself bouncing ideas off of PFC authors as well, and our very own wb was more than happy to oblige with an idea about how Ravichandran could grab a nearby object during a chase scene and hurl it at the culprit in a cricket-bowling-style motion. I loved it, Deepti loved it, and we ended up using it. The shoot would happen all over New York in true guerilla style: in the streets of Corona, by the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Park, outside the Shea stadium subway station, Chinatown, and inside and outside Deepti’s apartment in Queens. One of the scenes we shot outside the Ganesh Temple in Flushing had Ravichandran chasing a criminal, pausing outside the temple to get in a quick moment of prayer, and continue the chase. Sadly, this scene was left out at the editing table.
In true low-budget filmmaking style, everyone on set doubled up as an extra for various scenes. We were fortunate to have another PFC author, ravptor, join us in making his acting debut, a la Kartik Krishnan, in a double role. On the street, people’s reactions ranged from curious gazing to cheering, especially when Ravichandran “bowled out” the suspect. The trailer would finish shooting over two separate weekends in May, and thanks to Deepti (an editing whiz), would only take a week or so to edit. We’d screen the trailer in July in NY alongside a screening of her first film, Made in India. Cut to almost two months later and she’d submit it to a film festival…
All along, the purpose behind shooting this trailer had been to pitch it to investors and production houses, and raise a certain amount of money to shoot the actual feature. But when the film festival came back with an acceptance letter and the desire to see the actual short film…. short film??? We never made a short film, we just made a trailer! Shit. Wait. What now?
Deepti: “Umm… are you free next weekend? They thought it was a short film, so we need to make it one.”
Me: “Let’s do it!”
Within a week, she and the entire Brownscape Productions team had secured the original cast and crew and also managed to write a script for the short film. I’d been hoping, but never actually expected, for the team to come back together 4 months later and end up making Browntown into a short film. But sure enough, 3 weeks ago I found myself on that bus again, memorizing lines and itching to be in front of the camera again. And now, 3 weeks later, I’m happy to announce that Browntown will be premiering at the South Asian International Film Festival (SAIFF) in New York City. If you’re reading this, you’re invited. To buy tickets, visit this link, scroll down to “Emerging Filmmakers Series” and click on “Buy Tickets”. Look forward to seeing you there!
BROWNTOWN
U.S.A. / World Premiere / 2007
Director: Deepti Paul
Producer: Sudha Narasimhan, Mery Diaz
Written by: Alexander Heyward
Cast: Karthik Srinivasan, Mari Lauren Tavarez
Duration: 10 minsVenue: Clearview Cinema (1871 Broadway at 62nd St)
Show Time: 3:00pm – 4:45pm
General Admission: $15.00 (Higher at the door)Synopsis:
In a vulnerable landscape of racial volatility lies a police unit dedicated to protecting this fragile community from hate crimes. Two minority detectives are dedicated to solving these cases. Only one problem — one is a hard act to follow. The other has a hard name to pronounce. Welcome to BROWNTOWN.When a city as historically diverse as Browntown, Queens is hit hard with a hate-crime wave, how do a multitude of races co-exist without imploding? Detectives Srinivasan Pasupathi Ravichandran (or Ravi for short) and Ana Ramirez are thrown together to find the root of the problem. However, Ramirez’s animosity towards Ravi threatens their shared goal. Someone remains one step ahead by using their differences in culture and personality to work against them. But at the end of the day, crime doesn’t discriminate.
To the entire Brownscape team, you guys rock! Here’s hoping we can make the feature!
Links:
Browntown – www.browntownthemovie.com
Browntown in MySpace – http://myspace.com/browntownthemovie
Brownscape Productions – http://brownscapeprod.com/
Made in India? (Brownscape’s first film) – http://youtube.com/watch?v=twhCpvzQ7T0
Trailer:
[youtube]15Hn_GHxiTE[/youtube]
Production Stills and Behind-the-scenes pictures:
![bolta hai ki hawaalaat ki hawa khaayega? [u gonna talk or taste the air in jail?]](http://passionforcinema.com/wp-content/uploads/arrest.JPG)
![Form achcha hai [good form]](http://passionforcinema.com/wp-content/uploads/chase-bowling2.jpg)
![Ada Paavingalaaaa! [untranslatable]](http://passionforcinema.com/wp-content/uploads/ravi3.jpg)
![on the [not so] mean streets of Corona](http://passionforcinema.com/wp-content/uploads/team4.jpg)
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
yoo thalaiva !!! kalakkurae!!!
Bahi log… anybody in NY this weekend, plz come to watch…
It was a lot of fun to work w you, hopefully there’s more to come!
>-
Soopar machcha!!
AWESOME!
Bhai, you rock!
Loved the write up.
That’s a lot of fun! Here’s hoping the feature happens.
Sorry for the ignorance but are you a trained actor, Striker? Just assume you are.
Too much!! The bowling bit was a genuinely inspired comic touch
@Striker..i want to watch the film…seems to be good…how do i go about it?? Dont ask me to come to N.Y.:d
thanks guys.. appreciate the kind words (thanks deepti, for dropping by!)
er.. navdeep, nope.. not a trained actor.. though i did get bit by the bug by taking an acting class as an elective to graduate.. but that was mostly timepass.. outside of that, i taught myself by learning monologues from different movies and sitting in a room, turning on the camcorder and practicing them in front of the camera just for the hell of it.. and i love to people watch.. so that helps..
subrat, the credit for the bowling bit goes entirely to wb.. he suggested it, i merely enacted his thoughts.. i’m still waiting for his feedback on this [kahan ho bhai? :-w ]
sourav, i’m afraid you’ll have to come to NY to catch this for now.. but maybe after it ends its festival runs (and here’s hoping it has some) i’ll upload it on PFC.
@ striker all the best bro with the film
striker // i’m right here bhai – just following the age old edict that you don’t profusely praise your dear ones in public. all i can say is that i am eagerly awaiting your debut feature. ^:)^
wb.. sorry about that, wasn’t fishing for compliments.. i was just hoping the bowling scene lived upto your expectations.. if everything else were to have gone wrong in the trailer, the bowling scene was the one thing i REALLY wanted to go right since it was born thru you and PFC
nee kallakitte! [you stirred!]
thx sourav.
striker // :-) (enakkonnum theriyadu, naan appaavi) unn side lenthu nee panna vendiyathu nee amoghama pannita. adhu mattume satyam. mitchatha kadavul kitta vidu.