Following a string of failed auditions, his debut took him to Cannes, his second to Sundance
Kunal Guha (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 2, 2016)

"I hope you don’t mind if I keep my shades on,” says Shashank Arora, as he settles down for breakfast at an all-day eatery in Versova. The actor made waves with his piercing gaze as the lead in last year’s disturbing tale of desperate measures, Titli. The reason for hiding behind his kaala chashma, he continues, is because he can barely keep his eyes open. “I was dubbing for Rock On 2 till 4:30 this morning,” he says of his upcoming release, where he plays a bassist in a rock band. Also on the cards for Shashank, is Alankrita Shrivastava’s Lipstick Under My Burkha and Qissa director Anup Singh’s The Song of Scorpions, which stars Irrfan Khan, Waheeda Rahman and Iranian actor Golshifteh Farahani. “Galti se I’m also there in it,” he says cheekily of the latter.

“When I first came to Mumbai, following a film course in Montreal, I auditioned for every role — films, TV, commercials — but didn’t nail a single one. From Famous Studios to Aaram Nagar, I walked as much as the next guy and eventually took up art direction for a horrible TV show which didn’t even pay me.” It is then that it dawned on the 27-year-old that “Mumbai was a city of business” and that breaking into Bollywood was about more “than just the craft”. “My mom and dad have always taken care of me, so I was never into it for the money. But then, people took advantage of this and wouldn’t pay me.”

Following a string of rejections, when Shashank was on the verge of a breakdown, his dad suggested he approach the art “like it were a science”. “Acting is something one can invest the entire life in learning, so I joined Whistling Woods,” the Delhi-born actor says. He credits his professor, Robert Reece, for teaching everything he knows. “Most actors say that they ‘feel it’. But what is the process to conjure an emotion required in a scene, is what I learnt from him.” Reece even hired him as an assistant at the film school for a year, posing a more pertinent question. “If I was good enough to teach, why wasn’t I getting a single break? But teaching taught me a lot and I convinced myself that cracking auditions has little to do with my knowledge and kept at it.”

He even took a job with casting director Saher Latif (Furious 7, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) on the condition that she’d allowed him to audition for every part that came her way. While nothing materialised from this arrangement, in 2012 Shashank met writer-director Kanu Behl, who offered him hope. “Kanu told me he’s writing something and that I should come and see him in a year.” When he did, he learnt that he hadn’t made the cut. “Then he (Behl) asked me to make tea for him and I went into kitchen. That’s when he said that Dibakar (Banerjee) and Aditya Chopra (the producers) liked my audition and I was cast for the lead in Titli. I broke into tears. Just a day prior to that, I was willing to do a one-scene role as a security guard. I thanked him and left his apartment, and sat down on the street and called my dad to share the news. Then, I got myself a beer at 12:30 in the afternoon.”

Shashank’s performance didn’t go unnoticed as the film travelled to festivals across the world, endorsing his potential. “Steve Barron, a producer, saw it at London Film Festival and cast me as the lead in Brahman Naman,” he says of the Netflix release, directed by Q. “I hadn’t seen many films by Q apart from Gandu, which I saw half and didn’t quite like.” In the film, Shashank essays the eponymous role of a quiz nerd from the 1980s. “It was a Brahman character from 1980s Bangalore. I am from Delhi and I had no clue of that time or culture. So, I did my own research.” His best compliment remains the one he received from Reece, who felt that “Titli and Naman were two different people”. Abhishek Banerjee, the casting director of Rock On 2 was also impressed with Shashank’s debut. “I had initially auditioned for a different role but then I got cast as a band mate,” says the actor who has learnt to play the ukulele, guitar and flute.

“My first film went to Cannes and my second (Brahman Naman) to Sundance in the competition category for Best Drama feature, so I am very lucky.” But despite all the accolades, he feels that the audience for films depicting reality is scattered. “We don’t want to confront our lives through films. This is why most prefer films which are like happy meals. But a happy meal doesn’t stay with you. That fish you once had, which had a million bones, of which one even pricked you, stays.”

Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; June 21, 2016)


While filmmaker Q's directorial debut, Gandu, was banned in India, his next, Brahman Naman, is gearing up for a June 27 premiere at an Andheri multiplex as part of a screening hosted by the Jio MAMI Film Club. "We are very excited about Brahman Naman, which was one of the few films to have represented India in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section at Sundance (Film Festival) earlier this year. We've been keen to watch it ever since we got to know about it. We screened Q's Ludo at MAMI's After Dark section last year. He has been doing some interesting work for quite a few years now. We are fortunate to partner with Netflix and premiere this film in India for our MAMI Film Club members," MAMI chairperson and filmmaker, Kiran Rao informed Mirror.

Written by Naman Ramachandran, the film will be available as a Netflix original starting July 7 and features Titli actor Shashank Arora in the lead with Tanmay Dhanania and Chaitanya Varad. The cast also includes Vaiswath Shankar, Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy and Sidharth Mallya. Well known as one of India's most provocative indie filmmakers, Q's latest outing is a nerdy sex comedy.

Given the censorship issues in India, the film might never see the light of day here. "It is releasing on Netflix and the good thing is that audiences all over can see it just as the filmmaker intended it to be seen. We are happy to say that the only censor is quality at MAMI!" Kiran asserts.

The club recently hosted an interaction between British thespian and The Lord of Rings actor, Ian McKellen, and Aamir Khan. Without revealing much about her plans for the Mumbai film festival's 2016 edition, Kiran says that it is definitely going to be bigger and better than before. "We will hold a curtain raiser on this year's highlights not long from now, so watch this space!"

Filmmaker Q on his upcoming release Brahman Naman, in which a high school sex comedy meets an unusual villain — caste
Benita Fernando (MID-DAY; June 19, 2016)

For Q, this might be his tamest yet. The indie filmmaker, who has, in the past, given audiences the sexually explicit Gandu (2010) and the rather macabre Ludo (2015), is gearing up for the release of his latest film, Brahman Naman, a high-school sex comedy, on July 7. Three inebriated virginal Anglophile quizzers, all Brahmins, sometime in the Bengaluru of the 1980s, go through the demands of puberty, only to find themselves constantly tussling with a repressive Indian sanskari attitude and, strangely, caste.

“We keep talking about things we cannot eat, but when it comes to cinema, our belief is that it has to be completely palatable,” Q says, predictably, after admonishing us for referring to him as Qaushiq Mukherjee. “I killed Qaushiq eight years ago,” he says, jaded with having to explain this a little too often.

In the business of making and breaking identities, Q’s latest picks up on the middle-class attitude to sex, something which has probably undergone very little change over the decades. “When it comes to sex comedies, it seems we have not understood the key issue of repression. The impact of sexual identity on social development is hardly thought about; we are told learning how to f** k is wrong! It is a physical ability as basic as eating, sleeping and drinking; good sex is as important as good water or good food,” he says.

Like Porky’s and American Pie, or like the novel The Inscrutable Americans, the mission for Naman (Shashank Arora, who starred in Titli last year), Ajay (Tanmay Dhanania) and Ramu (Chaitanya Varad) is more or less distinguished in the course of the movie — hormones are raging, there is a subconscious effort to get laid, but it seems easier to win a quiz than lose one’s virginity.

However, there is nothing stopping these high-school braniacs from ‘doing it’, not even the charming competition on the men’s playing field such as Ronnie (Sid Mallya). The only obstacles to a memorable (or forgettable) romp are themselves, as Q says.

There are opportunities aplenty, right from hotel rooms during a quiz competition in Kolkata to a night at Naman’s father’s mattress manufacturing factory Rubber On, but none that the boys want to seize. The mission hardly gets to missionary.

If anything, Brahman Naman is an anti-sex comedy. Several puns, gags and jokes in Brahman Naman fall flat, in that way that nerdy adolescent humour can outside of its circles, but it can be argued that this is the world that scriptwriter Naman Ramachandran wanted to lead us into. “Naman had been working on the script for more than two years, and it looked into the politics of caste and how men in India are brought up,” says Q. The semi-autobiographical script borrows from Ramachandran’s upbringing, the severity of classrooms and living with caste discrimination. “Even among the trio, Naman is higher up the rung, perhaps because he is fairer than Ajay,” says Q.

As caste becomes the path to abstinence, Q is sure that there will be those who shall be offended by the theme of the film, if not its content (it’s a sex comedy, what do you expect?) or title. Dismissing these concerns as “impairment” on the part of audiences “who need medical assistance for their lack of humour”, Q says he is a big fan of extreme physical cinema, such as that put forth by Japanese filmmakers since the 1970s. Lots of goofing around and slapstick apart, Q says, “Look at the way these characters carry themselves; there is a certain manner in which virgin boys walk.”

Q breaks the mold in a number of ways with this film, which is his most commercial yet. It will see a global release on Netflix, bypassing the usual travails of cinema in the country. It is also set in Bengaluru, a city often ignored by mainstream cinema. “Most of my films were set in Kolkata, so it was refreshing to depart from this and feature Bengaluru. However, much of this film is shot in Mysuru; we found Bengaluru of the 1980s there, since not much has changed. We all lived together for almost a month, with the actors imbibing the slow way of life of the 80s imbibing working on their diction [the South Indian accent to their English],” says Q.

When will we have a high-school sex comedy which talks about the female experience? Where girls want to lose their virginity to nerdy quizzers and the charming Ronnie-Mallyas of the world? “I am waiting for a story like that. A story where women talk how they were brought up in a space like India, with all its gender and racial intricacies. I want more dirty stories from and by women, the kind that will make men rethink feminine sensuality.”

While the Indian adult comedy scene resembles a cinematic wasteland, a desi filmmaker strikes gold on foreign shores with his new film
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 3, 2016)


While Indian sex comedies have hit rough weathers with the likes of Kya Kool Hai Hum 3 and Mastizaade drawing flak, filmmaker Qaushiq Mukherjee aka Q's Brahman Naman has lucked out abroad.

The sex comedy marks the acting debut of liquor baron Vijay Mallya's son, Siddhartha, and also features Shashank Arora (of Titli fame), Tanmay Dhanania and Chaitanya Varad.

"I did an online search on Q and the film that came up was G*ndu. It is one of the few cuss words I know in my limited Hindi vocabulary and I told myself that I had to get involved with someone who made a film with a title like that," smiles Sid, who was at the premiere of his debut flick at the Sundance Film Festival 2016 recently.

The film received rave reviews at the fest with The Hollywood Reporter calling it "an imaginative reworking of a familiar formula".

It follows a Brahman boy, Naman, and his sidekicks, who are incredibly smart but are struggling to get laid.

Set in the 1980s, the film has the four college-going protagonists trying to win an all-India quiz tournament as well as lose their virginity. "We lived in a house in Mysore and did extensive workshops to get into the skin of the characters. We'd bathe by pouring buckets of water over our heads instead of taking showers, wore the Brahman thread, dhoti and the correct underwear too," Tanmay reveals.

For Shashank, the bigger challenge was to detach from his Titli character.

"Most Bollywood actors spend their entire lives doing the same roles. I had to put my pants down in front of an entire crew. No body does such things due to societal pressure. My character in the film is obnoxious and that's what makes it special."

On Monday, Netflix snapped up the worldwide Subscription on Video Demand rights to the film after the global push it received at the fest. The company's Indian spokesperson revealed that the film helps the expansion plans of Netflix in India and targets the large Indian diaspora and fans of Indian cinema around the world.

"Distribution for us in India has always been a problem. We're hoping this film gets out because we need an American Pie, a film that challenges our social morality and fabric," Q says.

THE RECIPE FOR A PERFECT SEX COMEDY IS...


'Hunterrr didn't make me cringe even for a second'

HANSAL MEHTA, Filmmaker

With Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai behind me, you could call me the pioneer of sex comedy in India. I made it at a time when no one else wanted to. As a society, we will progress if we learn to laugh at everything and enjoy sex jokes as we would enjoy family jokes at the dinner table. I've loved American Pie and while I was on the jury of the recently concluded Filmfare Awards, I caught Hunterrr and thoroughly enjoyed it. All the actors were brilliantly portrayed and I did not cringe through the film even for a second. That's how an adult comedy should be.


'Indians are extremely hypocritical about sex'

ARUNABH KUMAR, Founder - TVF Pitchers, Permanent Roommates

When I was studying at IIT Kharagpur, the boys were perennially confused. When the studious girls came to class, they labelled them "bhenji" and when a firang on an exchange programme visited campus, they called her "too revealing". Similarly, India is extremely hypocritical. The funniest Hindi sex-comedy would be one that brings out all the definitions of sex in our society. Humour has to emerge from characters. It has to be situational as it's everyone's twisted perspective that creates a funny situation. Growing up, we've all enjoyed the likes of American Pie and Euro Trip. The reason I can't think of a memorable Bollywood adult comedy is, well, because there really aren't any.

'Keep it witty, not sleazy'

OMKAR KAPOOR, Actor

Sex comedies don't necessarily have to be about skin show. The film Gone Girl was extremely erotic because it made the scenes titillating without flashing a cleavage or a bottom. It was the illusion of sex that made it appealing. On a lighter note, two boys discussing sex can be funnier than a girl and a boy performing the act. Project X was a film that had me clutching my sides, a typical "girl's out of my league" romance which people of all genders enjoyed. Boys can be supremely goofy!

Post his father’s 60th birthday bash, Sid Mallya talks about his dad, debut film and how he almost worked with Priyanka Chopra
Sanaya Chavda (DNA; December 20, 2015)


Debut dreams
Sid is making his on-screen debut with Brahman Naman, an international film directed by Kolkata-based filmmaker Q. “Ironically it was shot in Bengaluru even though it was a British film, which in a way was kind of nice given my family history in the city. It’s directed by Q and produced by a guy called Steve Barron, who was a very big music video director back in the day, who did the video Take On Me for AHA, Billie Jean, tons of Duran Duran stuff. It was just nice to work with him and Q, because Q’s very artistic and he doesn’t seem to worry about what’s acceptable and what’s not — he just does things. And that’s why it was lots of fun to work on this film. It’s not the biggest role in the film — it’s a supporting lead — but it’s big enough,” says Sid. Delving further into the character he plays, he says, “I am the main antagonist lead. It’s all set in college, Bangalore University. He’s sort of the jock character, gets all the girls and they’re sort of the geeks so that’s where the rivalry comes in. I could definitely relate to bits of it…”

An Indian in Hollywood
What many don’t know is that Sid had also auditioned for a number of ABC shows including Quantico, which has grabbed much headlines for Priyanka Chopra’s leading role. “Like most actors in America I auditioned for a lot of ABC’s pilots, one of them was Quantico and a number of other shows which either did or didn’t get picked up or got cancelled along the way. But that was just in the audition process. Priyanka Chopra is doing really well. That’s all credit to her for sticking through and getting to where she is. I haven’t seen Quantico yet because we don’t get it in the UK. I believe she’s doing a great job and it’s testament to her character and to her work ethic,” he adds. While there are some Indian actors who have managed to make a mark abroad, is Sid concerned about being typecast? “Funnily enough I’m not stereotypically viewed as Indian. They don’t look at me and think I look Indian. In fact, I get more South American than anything else. And I think I’m in a fortunate position because I have that ethnically ambiguous look where I could play Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, South American, Mexican, Egyptian so there’s a lot more — in fact the last thing I think I’ll be able to play is Indian. Because if they want someone, they want someone who looks traditionally Indian, now my mannerisms and all aren’t traditionally Indian so I think I’m okay in terms of typecast. In acting school, funnily enough, they’ve told me I do need to work on softening my accent a little because I have a very thick, cut, crisp British accent that could also limit some of the things I do,” admits Sid. “Apart from Priyanka and to an extent Aishwarya (Rai Bachchan) there hasn’t really been an Indian actress who’s made it big there. There have been more actors — Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan — who have done projects as opposed to the actresses. Therefore logic would tell you it’s easy for the actor. I guess for girls, everyone likes a good-looking face but if you’re not talented it doesn’t matter how good-looking you are. So I wouldn’t say it’s easy for them. Perhaps there are more opportunities for them…”

Taking baby steps
Sid says that since he’s still in school, he’s not in any rush to sign more films. “I’m still in drama school, that’s my focus. I have just completed the first semester so I’ve got till next September. It’s a full 360 degree approach to it. There’s performance, voice, movement, dance, text analysis because the whole thing is how to act through the body. They’ve literally taught me how to re-sit, how to talk, how to walk, breathe because they think everything is connected. If you don’t breathe from the right place in the diaphragm then you tighten everything in the chest. If you don’t stand properly on your feet, you tighten everything in the hips. If you tighten your hips, you tighten your breath, if you tighten your breath you tighten your neck and then emotion doesn’t flow. So it’s a full round thing. We did the waltz, meringue, jive and tango. It’s a nice holistic approach,” he says.

And if Bollywood were to come calling, would Sid take the opportunity? “No, I’m not interested in Bollywood. I don’t think I’ll be able to do it either. The sensibilities are very different, and I don’t think I have the sensibilities to make it in Bollywood. I don’t speak Hindi so my options are rather limited,” says Sid who admits he hasn’t been keeping track of the latest releases either.

Family matters
Sid, who is currently on a Christmas break from school, flew down to celebrate his father Vijay Mallya’s milestone 60th birthday. The bash in Goa, which lasted for a couple of days, was said to be a lavish affair. However, Sid didn’t come with a gift for his dad. Commenting on what he’s learnt from his Pa, Sid says, “One thing he does really well which perhaps I don’t do as well — he’s quite easy to switch off what other people think. And criticisms or whatever, he’s quite easy to switch away and live his own life whereas I read into things a lot more… You got to love what you do! That’s what he does. He can sit in the office till 5 am because he loves what he does and I didn’t love what I was doing that’s why I left to pursue this different career of mine. I think I’ve found my calling.” Sid does, however, reveal that he finds it easier living in the West, as here he is under constant scrutiny. “I wish people would judge me for who I was as opposed to someone’s son. But I guess being in India that’s something I’m never going to be able to shrug. Therefore in the West I’ve got that opportunity to be my own person a little bit more. It’s always nice.”

From the heart
His personal life has made waves especially a couple of years back when he dated Deepika Padukone. While there have been a couple of link-ups since then, Sid has managed to keep the media glare away. “Yes, there is someone. I’m not going to give names purely because it’s not fair on that person. Then people start prying and hassling that someone. She studies as well. I’m quite happy about my personal life so long as it doesn’t affect someone else. I know if I start giving you names then I’m putting their personal life at risk. As for me, I’m like an open book!” he says. Quiz him if he’s still in touch with Deepika and he says, “Yeah I mean I am in touch with Deepika, like I’m in touch with anyone. I couldn’t be happier for her. It’s great that she’s so successful and long may her continue. I don’t know anything about her Hollywood ventures but I’m sure she will be as great in Hollywood as she’s been here. Best of luck to her!”

Looking ahead
What does the new year hold for Sid? “Hopefully, more of the same. I’m happy that things have started to progress in this career that I’ve chosen. 2014 was a stepping stone, 2015 has gone one higher and hopefully 2016 I can continue on that upward trajectory. There are amazing directors and big people that you always want to work with. But I’m happy to take whatever I can. I just want to continue making good stuff and continuing to grow and continuing to learn. That’s my main goal. This is where my heart is!”