Hollywood Masala

The Ashvin Kumar Interview

Coming off the heals of his Academy Award nomination for "THE LITTLE TERRORIST" in the SHORT FILM CATEGORY of the 2005 Academy Award Show, I had the pleasure of catching up with writer / director Ashvin Kumar before he headed off to India to start working on his next feature. Here is the transcript of the interview. Enjoy!

AK = Ashvin Kumar
HR = Harish Rao (interviewer)

The questions:

HR - Ashvin, first and foremost can you please tell us briefly how you came up with the story of the Little Terrorist?

AK - The best way to put this story across was to pout this in a gentle manner. A hero who was innocent of the political machinist of India and Pakistan and this was the "child". I have been influenced by the cinema of Iran. A combination of these influences and the fact that this incident actually took place this also inspired the film.

HR - Filming in India is always difficult, but tell us about the experience filming so closely to the LOC (Line of Control) between India and Pakistan?

AK - We actually didn`t film at the LOC we went out to Jaipur and created the entire village border. We took a call and went as far up as we could go without running out of money, and this was Jaipur.

HR - If you don`t mind, could you tell us the budget of the film, and some of the challenges you had in making this film?

AK - Budget was 15,000 [English pounds] and the challenges were many, such as the tents burning down, trying to persuade foreign crews to come down without paying them airfare etc., and working amateur actors who came through so well.
The next biggest challenge was editing the whole film together in my apartment in London. I put the negative in my handbag and did this all by myself. Followed by taxing series of things that I had to do by myself. It was fulfilling because I learned so much doing this process. It didn`t stop there, we made the film now what?
We had to pull so many favors from the town, sponsorships from film council and British council, and the big question was what to so next. Showed the film at Cannes, and submitted to 35 to 40 film festivals and we got selected in Montreal and that became a big decision. I am glad that we went there because we won there and this qualified us for the academy awards.

HR - Congratulations on your Oscar Nomination, I noticed that most of the other short films in the same category had the backing of their countries` film councils or some film body, were you disappointed that no such backing came from India?

AK - No unfortunately we don`t have that kind of thing in India. The average budget of the other shorts in competition was 50,000 pounds. The other films, as soon as they won awards in various film festivals, their respective film councils would shout from the rooftops but [India] doesn`t have this but perhaps now the powers that be can wake up to this now. It is very encouraging that Shringar films picked up the film for distribution. This concept was total alien to the Indian film community before. I have a hope that individual Indian filmmakers can now go out and shoot their own films. It is critical that films get some sort of backing from the government from now on hopefully.

HR - Did you have any interference from the Indian government in getting approval for such a controversial subject matter?

AK - No not at all.

HR - This is not your first short film, can you briefly tell us your previous films and is there an opportunity for viewers to see these films?

AK - Road to Ladekh, my first short film is now being turned into a full length feature . Irfan Khan had completed the WARRIOR previously before doing my short. The film was released by the time I contacted him for this film. You can see all of the details of my experience and buy the DVD on www.adventuresinshorts.com

HR - Your first short film, ROAD TO LADEKH is quite a "long" short film running aver 40 minutes; did you run into any problems when trying to submit to film festivals?

AK -I learned a lot from the first film. I was in film school when I did my first short film, I put out a casting and crew notice and told people that I couldn`t pay anybody but if you want to come out and work on this film then please do. I decided this would be my film school and this is what happened. Actually all of my adventures and the background on my films up to this point in on the website:

www.adventuresinshorts.com

I have spoken a lot about this process. If you go to the details there is an exhaustive 4000 word essay on my experience going from a long short film to this one.

HR - What is on your slate for the next film you are going to tackle?

AK - It is a thriller film entitled, "THE FOREST". [This film is being done] to convey my love for the jungles. The tiger is going to be extinct in a few years because of the species being poached out of existence in India [and I wanted to do a film based on that subject]. It is a genre picture about a man eating leopard and young couple who will tempt fate by encountering it. Being shot in India and Thailand with Irfan Khan and the young star from the Little Terrorist
The next film after THE FOREST is going to be a full length feature update of Road to Ladekh.
The third one is an absurdist comedy set in India but it is just an idea at the moment.

HR - Can you tell us about the Academy Award experience, we all wanted you to win the Oscar for the best short film, but please tell us your thoughts on the whole experience from being nominated to sitting in the audience and hearing the nominations and the announcement?

AK - The past 4 weeks have been a surreal ride from relative obscurity to transitioning through there UK and here in LA. Being invited to address all kinds of forums, and I have been delighted to talk about my film and have someone listen. I am still trying to assimilate what has happened through the whole experience. What really hit me is the sea of limousines and getting onto the red carpet with the shrieking crowd all around you. Thousands of photographers snapping at you, you start losing the awe of stars all around you I don`t know how many stars` dresses I must have stepped on. [laughs]
Having conversations with various actors that you have admired over the years [was a surreal experience]. Every 5 – 10 minutes of remembering where you are, it went by really quickly. My main worry was what if I win, what will I say? It was always a worry because you representing in India. The winning of it wasn`t really why I was there, I now it sounds cheesy but this is the fact.

HR - Where does Ashvin Kumar see himself in 5 years from now?

AK - I see myself having made two features and completing a third one. I intend to execute these films in the next few years.

Editor`s note:
Ashvin Kumar`s short films will be available for purchase on hollywoodmasala.com in the near future. It will be a three hour film package of Kumar`s entire experience and short films leading up to the Oscars.

Below are pictures from the SAAFA event in which Ashvin Kumar spoke about the feature film. A very special thanks to Neeta Mittal and SAAFA:



Ashvin Kumar addressing a captive audience at the SAAFA screening of the film in Los Angeles.



Unexpected special guest, Bollywood Film Director Joy Augustine was present at the screening, and shared his views on filming in India at the event.

Harish Rao reporting.