AlternateTake Adda Sagnik Gupta

Brandon Ingram is an actor and author, based in Colombo. He has been working in theatre since 2006; 2020 marked his film debut as he played Arjie in Deepa Mehta's Funny Boy in a performance full of a gentle slow bloom. In our conversation with him, we try unpack his association with Funny Boy and diverse assortment of interests and multi field roles across the years , all fuelled and bound by his singular interest in storytelling.

Rehan Mudannayake is a Sri Lankan actor and director who made his mark as the charismatic and charming Shehan in Deepa Mehta's 2020 film Funny Boy. His suave, insouciantly confident presence in the film happens to be his first acting gig. He talks to us about preparation, reception, key touch points the film sparks , the peripheral conversation, influences, and contemporary Sri Lankan cinema.

In a brief chat, Bhaskar Hazarika lets us in on the various camera trickeries in Kothanodi, the hiccups of shooting a debut in Majuli, emphasizing his working solely in the interest of the story, keeping subtexts secondary. Among other things, he explains the audience manipulation achieved in Aamis, why he did weigh ahead on how much he could provoke, and insists on audiences taking more responsibility for health of indie films. 

Don Palathara explains why he doesn't necessarily view his films, Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam and Everything is Cinema as companion pieces, how he ensured a fluidity of camera in sync with the car in the former and explored the ways in which politics of language is geared for personal agendas. He elaborates on his resisting all forms of politically correct representations, the songs that tail the recent three films, the production and reception aspects, among other things.