By- Sanchali Sutradhar
“It’s a good feeling when I saw all four of us from a non-filmy background made it to this level and worked together in a movie. I am hoping people will watch and love our film.”
– Kenny Basumatary
The actor-director- writer Kenny Basumatary is all set for his new film release – Yaara on Zee5 which is directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia starring Vidyut Jammwal, Vijay Verma, Kenny Basumatary, Shruti Haasan and Sanjay Mishra.
The actor-director-writer is known for his martial arts comedy film Local Kung-Fu (1 &2), Raag Desh, and Suspended Inspector Boro.
Next, Kenny will be seen in Tigmanshu Dhulia’s film Yaara- which will premiere on Zee5.
In conversation with Kenny Basumatary, we tried to note his experiences while working for the film – Yaara
1. Tell us about your new project- Yaara ?
“Yaara is a bit of an epic tale of friendship, it’s the story of four friends, which starts from their childhood and goes to the youth and then it goes on the way to middle age. The story focuses on how these four friends go through a life of crime. And events when they catch up each other in their middle age, altogether it’s quite a long period from 60s, 70s and to the 90s. It’s one of an epic.”
2. Is Yaara the exact remake of a French film?
“It’s an official remake, but I think Tigmanshu Dhulia has changed many things in Yaara.”
3. How was your experience working with Tigmanshu Dhulia?
“Tigmangshu Dhulia is a brilliant actor himself, he knows exactly what he wants, he likes things to be efficient and he doesn’t waste time. Once he is satisfied with the take, he will say okay and move on. He won’t go for extra takes unnecessarily. If he is happy, he moves on to the next shot.”
4. Strict director or friendly director, what would you call him?
“Both actually and it depends, he reacts as per the amount of pressure.”
5. What made you do the film?
“They chose me for this film actually. Tigmanshu Dhulia was directing the film and I thought whatever role I get in it, I will do it.”
6. Describe your character and other characters in Yaara?
“My character’s name is Bhimsan Thapa, he is a Nepali chap and lot of the events of the film happen in the Indo-Nepal border. My character is very loyal. Vidyut is the leader of the group and Amit and Vijay’s characters – they are the kind of characters who likes to have fun and to do some masti. They are the guys, who look out for others and take care of the things. Shruti is Vidyut’s love interest. And Sanjay Mishra plays a mentor to the gang of friends.”
7. Any interesting event which you recall while shooting Yaara?
“There was one day in shoot and it was supposed to be rain and mud, for almost 3-4 hours rain machines were pouring and we were on mud shooting and we had to take several different angles. So that was a memorable day which I recall as we had a muddy-rainy day and shot for few hours continuously.”
8. Where was the film shot?
“We shot in Rajasthan, Bhopal, Nepal, Dehradun, Mumbai and Nepal.”
9. Were there any challenges or things that you may have did for the first time while shooting this film?
“Yeah… I drove a truck for the first time while shooting this film.”
10. Which co-star/co-stars you would like to work in the future?
“All my co-stars in this film are equally good; they have their own special talents. Vidyut obviously is an international level action, Amit and Vijay are very very good actors, even Shruti is a good actress and a wonderful person to work with. They all are wonderful; I would like to work with them again.”
11. Actors you look up to?
“My favorite actors are Boman Irani, Ranvir Shorey, these are the people I look up to and want to work with in the future.”
12. Are you planning to produce any North-East centric web series or movies in the coming future?
“I have a web series which I was supposed to shoot but the lockdown occurred, so we have to wait a little bit for it. It’s a romantic comedy for an upcoming OTT platform called ‘Reel Drama’. This will be focusing on East India – Bengal, Orissa and North East. This web series would be my first dream towards the OTT platform.”
13. As per the current scenario of the pandemic, now the entertainment industry is facing a big change as the film releases mostly releasing in OTT platforms. How do you think it’s going to affect the entertainment business as theatre releases are on hold for the time being.
“Well, its good days for the OTT platforms, bad days for cinema halls and for film makers as well. Because if you can’t shoot then there will be no content to give for OTT platform after a point of time. But I guess the curve will go downwards in a couple of months and people will slowly start back to normal.”
