ANAND SURAPUR TURNS CINEMATIC ALCHEMIST WITH 'THE FAKIR OF VENICE'

Anand Surapur's yet unreleased film 'The Fakir of Venice' will be screened on Thursday, November 12th, as part of the upcoming MIAAC Film Festival, a favorite fall event to help heat up those chilly nights in the Big Apple.

It is a film that is at once touching, tragic and charming. The film has been hailed in the Hollywood Reporter as 'A dark Indian comedy that could potentially reach a broad art-house audience' and of course, the now infamous title of 'Slumdog Millionaire' was also mentioned in the next paragraph of the film's review by Kirk Honeycutt.

With his own special brand of globalization, Anand Surapur is helping to link that bridge between India and the West that has been indisputably palpable after the success of Danny Boyle's film -- which incidentally also premiered in NYC as the Centerpiece of the 2008 edition of the Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council festival. Surapur is a pleasant island among filmmakers who mistrust the media and rush through interviews in an effort to keep their "essence" -- what makes them appear bigger than life and manifest the talent they possess -- to themselves.

Following is a leisurely conversation I had with Surapur, over Guinness and chai at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. Although he won't be presenting the film at MIAAC, his star Farhan Akhtar is slated to introduce the screening and answer any of the audience's questions.

E. Nina Rothe: Phat Phish is your production company. Did you start out in producing?

Anand Surapur: No, I'm actually a director. I used to make promotional stuff for Channel V and MTV at one time, music videos... One of the films [Quick Gun Murugun, directed by Shashank Ghosh] that we produced was a promo initially.

ENR: So how did you get into directing?

AS: I don't know, it's quite difficult to say... I think my Mom was crazy about films and she's a classical singer, so I guess the music comes from her. And I mean, she was really crazy about films. I was never drawn to film-making until I was about 18/19. Never even thought about it. It just suddenly switched on.

ENR: What did you study in school?

AS: I actually came to study in Kansas, electrical engineering. Got a scholarship in 1989. Then I quit that because I got bored... I moved to New York, for four and a half years. I worked and did some odd jobs. Never graduated. In NY I shot a short film, it was at this time that I began discovering what I wanted to do, it seemed to come naturally to me. So I shot a documentary and then I took it back home when I moved back.

ENR: So what is the documentary about?

AS: It's about this girl who goes on a journey to find herself in Costa Rica. It's only an eleven minute film. I showed it to a few people and Shashank was one of them. I showed it to him in '94 and he said "When can you start?" And I said "Tomorrow!" and that's how it all started and how Shashank, [Ghosh] the director of QGM, became my boss.

ENR: So now onto "The Fakir of Venice". How did you become attracted to the project?

AS: You know, the guy told me the story and I was completely zapped. It's a true story out of Homi's ['Being Cyrus' director Homi Adajania] life. . It was just too unusual and there so much in the story: exploitation, friendship... In these times... The more I learned about it, the more it intrigued me. I even met the Fakir's real sister. Never met the man himself...

ENR: It is based on a true story, but is it true all the way to the ending?

AS: Not really. The premise is real. But the incidents have been changed a little. (He chuckles). I actually got Homi in the film. He's there, in one shot, where Farhan is back from Benares and he's talking to some friends in a bar. He's one of the friends.

ENR: How was it filming outside of India?

AS: I prefer shooting outside the country. You see, in India when I shoot I don't have any constructed sets. I try and use real locations and the people existing rather than hiring background and all of that. So, for me shooting in India is quite a pain, because I always have to do it on the fly and finish really fast. Otherwise, you get people coming into the frame, it's very difficult to handle. That's why I have always liked shooting abroad, because nobody hassles you.

ENR: What about your shoot in Venice? I mean the city can be pretty crowded too. Were there issues about the location?

AS: Yeah, but people let you be. In India, everyone sits around, so you've got to learn how to shoot fast. You are always under pressure. I mean, the second film we shot, it was more in a controlled location, on a larger scale. But Fakir was the first film and I used the real locations, in Venice, Tibet, Banares [Varanasi]. The only problem we had in Venice was that we had to work it in such a way -- it takes about four hours to transport there, when you shift locations, because of the boats, you have to load, reload, set up, re-set up -- I ended up shooting with two cameras, so as not to waste too much time. I had two different crews shooting the same thing. It cut time.

ENR: What do you actually prefer about shooting in India?

AS: I love Indian stories! Well, it's a pain in the... but I still love shooting there. You don't have to make it seem real, reality is just there.

ENR: Chronologically, even if the film has yet to be released, you were the first person to use Farhan Akhtar -- a well-known director himself -- as an actor. What made you think of him as your Adi Contractor?

AS: In fact my film says "Introducing Farhan Akhtar"... He knows Homi really well and he always wanted to act. I shot him in a commercial for Titan Watches a long while ago. You know, after Zoya saw this film she cast Farhan in 'Luck By Chance'. She wanted to see his work... Initially, I had spoken to Saif [Ali Khan] and he had agreed but after a year or so he turned it down. By then, he had become a star, more of a Bollywood actor, so he wasn't interested in doing more of these kinds of films. And he had already done 'Being Cyrus' under Homi's direction, so he was afraid of being typecast. (Laughs)

ENR: What would you call this genre of film? I mean, is it art-house? I have even heard it being called a "Black Comedy", which I absolutely think it's not!

AS: (laughing) I have no idea! Art-house has this weird connotation. But this film does seem weird, weird and strange. Also while I was shooting it, it was such an odd thing. It perhaps should be called a bittersweet film. I feel it to be very ironic, you simply feel the story but cannot do anything about it.

ENR: How did you get Annu Kapoor to act in the film, as the Fakir?

AS: I called him. There was a choice between Irrfan Khan and him. I mean, these are the people that we have: Irrfan, Naseer [Naseeruddin Shah], Om [Puri], Raghubir Yadav and Vijay Raaz. Yadav, you actually feel sorry for the guy -- it's his face which makes you want to give him a hug and I didn't want pity for the character of the Fakir. Irrfan I thought would be stronger than Farhan because of his size. It would be hard to feel the oppression dynamic. And Annu looks like the real life guy. He kept everything internal and changed so many things in the film. That grace that he brings, you really can't direct it. He owns Fakir. And in real life, he is the exact opposite of the character. In fact, I always let him speak at screenings. It doesn't matter what I say, he is the best spokesperson for the film.

ENR: How much of the character of Gia is real?

AS: There actually was one photographer who would come by and leave a rose in the sand. But they never spoke in real life. So we made her into a character.

ENR: What is your favorite place on earth?

AS: Oh, god. Favorite place? That's a tough one... All places are nice. It's a state of mind.

ENR: Preferred activity when you are not working?

AS: I'm always working. Or traveling... For work.

About the author: E. Nina Rothe ran her own column at Chic Today for over a year and a half where she interviewed Sooni Taraporevala, Zoya Akhtar and Liz Mermin among many others. She currently writes for AVS TV. She has just been published in Tehelka Magazine and Bespoke as well. You can find her personal writing on her blog The Ajnabee Websites: (http://theajnabee.com/)

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MIAAC, NEW YORK’S INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL - NOVEMBER 11-15, 2009
Complete program and ticket info at www.miaacfilmfest.org

The 2009 MIAAC Film Festival is setting the stage for some of the most highly anticipated films of the year. The festival includes films from India, Canada, the UK and the United States.

-The November 11th opening night film is “Today’s Special,” a comedy written by and starring Aasif Mandvi (“The Daily Show”) accompanied by renowned Indian actor Naseerudin Shah and author and actor Madhur Jaffrey.

-Santosh Sivan's “Tahaan” set in Kashmir, is the prestigious Festival Centerpiece on November 13th.

- The festival’s closing night on November 15th packs a bang with “Antaheen – The Endless Wait” starring two film luminaries discovered by Satyajit Ray - Sharmila Tagore and Aparna Sen – both of whom will attend the festival.

About the Indo-American Arts Council:
The is a registered 501(c)3 not-for-profit, secular service and resource arts organization charged with the mission of promoting and building the awareness, creation, production, exhibition, publication and performance of Indian and cross-cultural art forms in North America. For more information, please visit