Amriki Pandit, the upcoming Hindi film starring actors R Madhavan and Manju Warrier in the lead roles, is 50% complete, confirms the writer and director of the film, Kalpesh Garg, in a conversation with Silverscreen India.
Calling the film a “high-concept comedy-drama”, debutant filmmaker Garg, who has been a US resident for over 15 years, says Madhavan portrays an Indian-origin US psychology professor while Warrier essays a Bhopal-based divorce lawyer.
“This professor comes up with a formula that can guarantee lasting marriages in a world where divorces are increasing. When he wants to test it in the US, he lands in trouble. Hence, he goes to Bhopal and tests his idea with the people there. His journey and dream of testing the formula are what the film is about. But it’s all treated humorously. Meanwhile, Manju plays a local divorce lawyer in Bhopal who does not like the idea. She kind of plays the antagonist,” explains Garg.
The filmmaker wanted someone who looks intelligent but also has good comedy timing for the role of the professor. “After zeroing in on Madhavan, we reached out to him and he was open to hearing the story. We met a couple of times in India and the US before he signed on,” says Garg.
Amriki Pandit marks Madhavan’s first collaboration with Warrier.
Warrier, who was last seen in the Malayalam horror thriller Chathur Mukham, will also be making her debut in the Hindi film industry through the film. She had earlier disclosed that she would be making her foray into Hindi cinema during a press meet for the film The Priest, in March.
Speaking about casting Warrier, Garg says he wanted someone who was “mature” to carry the character of the divorce lawyer, who is aged about 32 or 33. “That was when I happened to see Asuran and I loved her performance. Our cinematographer Abinandhan Ramanujam, who does a lot of Malayalam films, got us in touch and I pitched the story to her. She liked it and came on board.”
Clarifying that Amriki Pandit is a Hindi film, Garg adds that it will be dubbed in Tamil and Malayalam. He also confirms that the lead actors are dubbing for themselves in Hindi.
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The filmmaker reveals that post Warrier’s casting, the team had considered changing the character from a Hindi person to a Malayali person who lives in Bhopal, since there is a significant population of Malayalis there. “But she stood firm on playing the character as it was originally written and spent 1.5 months learning the language and perfecting the accent.”
The film also stars actors Sushmita Mukherjee, Godaan Kumar, Deepti Sati, and Vineet Sharma, among others.
Speaking of his own journey, the director says he has always been interested in filmmaking but could not take it up full-time. “I chose a regular career in IT, but still wanted to do something related to cinema. So, I started writing scripts. I wrote one script in 1998 and another in 2004, both of which I hope to direct one day.”
As for Amriki Pandit, Garg says he wrote that script in 2011. “I came up with the idea and developed it into a screenplay after discussing it with some people. In the meantime, I also joined New York Film Academy in 2013-14 and pursued a one-year course in film direction.”
Some friends from his IT circle also wanted to get involved in filmmaking. So, they started a company called Amriki Talkies Corporation and decided to produce this film.
The shooting for the film began in India in March 2020, but was halted after the lockdown. “We have shot about 50% of film and are waiting to complete the rest once the lockdown is lifted. It will be shot both in the US and Bhopal. We want to shoot the US portions once we are done with the India part. And this is a large-scale commercial feature film; our unit in Bhopal itself was about 250 people. So we want to wait until the environment is conducive before restarting production,” says Garg.
“We don’t know what the conditions will be like when we finish the film, but if the situation permits a theatrical release, Amriki Pandit will be one,” he signs off.