Bribing his cast with momos and noodles, director Kenny Basumatary has made a film in less than Rs 1 lakh. At a time when the mere publicity costs of Bollywood films run into crores, an Assamese film is setting an example in creative austerity. Kenny Basumatary's Local Kung Fu, a martial art comedy has been made on a shoestring budget of Rs. 95,000.
The Assamese production will be released through PVR's independent arm - Director's Rare this September.
The story is inspired by the ancient art of Kung Fu and has all the mainstream elements of love, action, family conflict and a fair share of humour. Since the film's cast is made up of martial arts students, all the stunts were performed without using any support-cables. With a team of around 20 nonactors, the film was shot within a span of 100 days.
Talking about his 92-minute feature, Kenny says: "My uncle runs a martial arts institute in Assam. After finishing the script, I decided to get his best students to act and it has worked wonderfully."
Kenny, an IIT-Delhi dropout, came to Mumbai with the ambition of being an actor. He did a few TV commercials and supporting roles in films and also wrote a script. However, he was soon disillusioned with the ways of Bollywood. "Without signing a Khan or Kapoor, nobody would bother to even listen to my story," he laments. Dejected, Kenny went back to Guwahati and sourced money from his family to make a film. "I cannot believe we've reached so far. I barely had money to pay my actors. We've survived on plates of momos and noodles for the longest time."
The film had its world premiere at the Osian Film Festival in July last year where it earned rave reviews. Capitalising on the online buzz this created, producer Durlov Baruah came on board investing Rs 4 lakhs to ensure more visibility for the film.
