Exclusive Interview ! It Gives Me A Kick To Do Something That Hasn’t Been Done Before : BEJOY NAMBIAR

IT GIVES ME A KICK TO DO SOMETHING THAT HASN’T BEEN DONE BEFORE: BEJOY NAMBIAR

With the powerhouse of talent Bejoy Nambiar in the director’s chair and the dashing Dulquer Salmaan who turns every role of his into gold as its lead actor, Solo has much going for it. One can already see that it is a young, cool and different movie. The makers have embarked on a never-seen-before marketing strategy, creating a huge buzz on social and print media. Moreover, the movie lines up an ensemble cast with Neha Sharma, Dhansika, Arthi Venkatesh, Sai Tamhankar, Sruthi Hariharan, Suhasini and Nasser among others. Shot in both Tamil and Malayalam, the romantic thriller is a bilingual anthology that tells the stories of Siva, Rudra, Shekhar and Trilok.
We caught up with the super cool and suave Bejoy Nambiar to ask him all about his first Malayalam venture.

1.An anthology is not an oft-explored genre in Indian cinema. What inspired you to go down that road?

I am a big fan of multiple structures, multiple narratives and so on. I have always wanted to do an anthology because most of the anthologies I have seen have been directed by different filmmakers, not a single filmmaker. So that’s a road I wanted to tread. And also an anthology is not an often visited format in Indian cinemas. Not that I was trying to change Indian cinema but it gives me a kick that I was trying to do something which has not been really done before. An anthology with the same protagonist in all the 4 stories of the film. I don’t think it has been done before at all.

2.Tell us something about Solo. The name is an interesting one for a movie that tells 4 stories.

Solo is an anthology with the elements of fire, earth, water and wind as its backdrop. Dulquer plays the protagonist in all four stories. It’s a Shiva anthology because we have tapped into the emotions of rage and love in its extremities. So there are two stories of love and two stories of rage. The title Solo came from the concept of Ahm Brahmasmi which basically means I am the Infinite Reality. The basic theory is that the world, God and everything resides in us. The genesis of the title Solo comes from that thought. At the beginning we experimented with a few Sanskrit titles but then we zeroed in on Solo because it encapsulated what we wanted to say and at the same time was cool and catchy.

3.What led you to zero in on Dulquer Salmaan as your lead man?

Dulquer is someone I have been wanting to work with for a long time. I am very glad that I am starting my Malayalam innings with him and on a film like this. I am a big fan of his earlier work and am super excited that we were able to do this film together

4.Many directors struggle to tell one story in a movie. You are taking on the task of telling 4 stories. How easy or difficult was this?

It was extremely difficult shooting for the four stories. And we were doing a bilingual so technically it was 8 stories. I think the smart thing we did was that we shot each story separately and we approached each story like an individual feature film. We never mixed up the schedules or the stories at any point. It was quite challenging and I am keen to see how the audience responds to it.

5.The Malayalam industry has had a fairly laid back attitude towards social media marketing of a movie. You seem to be different. Do you think you are setting a precedent? And do you have a specific social media strategy that you’re following?

I am new to the Malayalam industry. It is not that I am trying to set a precedent but I definitely feel that the target audience for this movie is the youth. The youth are so active on social media that it makes perfect sense to market the movie quite heavily on social media as well. Keeping that in mind we devised a strategy on how to go about it. I am pretty happy with the response we got and what we have put out online. I think it has paid off well and contributed to creating the hype that you can see around the film. We are hoping to push that harder towards the final leg of the movie promotions. I think it has really helped us in taking the visibility of the film to a wider audience.

6.What are your future projects looking like? Any plans to make more movies with Dulquer Salmaan?

I have no idea about my future projects as of now. My focus is entirely and completely on Solo now. Once Solo is done, I will figure out what I want to do next.

7.Working with Dulquer again?

A 2000% yes. I am looking forward to when I can work with him next because he is someone I really enjoyed working with. We look forward to collaborating with him soon.

Solo  Movie all set for release on October 5th.