You’re Casting Wrong AKA How To Make The Smarter Casting Decisions
Whether you like it or not, we’re now in the age of the influencer. This shift in the paradigm has been in the making for years but the evolution is now complete. Need someone to play a young married woman? Kusha Kapila. Need someone to play a nosy neighbor? Kusha Kapila. Need someone to play the Prime Minister? Vivek Oberoi and if he’s unavailable, Kusha Kapila.? The number of followers has started deciding an artist’s value and this is starting to reflect in all forms of art, whether it’s music, fashion, or in my case, films. Repetition and plagiarism are rampant in an effort to gain those followers. Isn’t that essentially what an Instagram trend is? A format that we found funny once and then the hordes of influencers rushed to jump on the bandwagon, to get you to press that little red heart, just one more time.?
The problem however, starts to show when we begin replacing true-to-their-art, trained actors with influencers. Don’t get me wrong, it takes a lot of effort to become a successful influencer. But that would be true for established actors as well. In the end, it boils down to specialization. You wouldn't go to ask a pediatrician to do a cardiologist’s job.??
Don’t worry though, this isn’t just an opinion piece to complain about the lack of creative talent in our industry. Every age of filmmaking has had its own challenges. The brightest just figure a way to make it work for them.?
Get Some Support.
Let’s be honest, for your marquee projects, there's not going to be much creative freedom to choose your leads. Your brands probably have a brand ambassador and it's probably Ranveer Singh (This guy does literally everything). What you do have control over, is your supporting cast. Spend some time and get the best possible person for the role. A good actor not only saves precious time on set but also breathes life into a dry script.?
During a campaign for Redmi’s 9A phone launch, we got the opportunity to work with the fantastic Sonu Sood. The scripts were simple enough- Monu comes to Sonu with a problem, Sonu recommends getting the new Redmi phone. Here was the challenge: we needed to shoot 5 such scripts in a single day.?
It occurred to us before we started casting that we would need someone that would need to hold his own while sharing screen space with Sonu. We would also need someone that would add to the mere words on the page. Monu’s character was written as a wannabe know-it-all. Someone who could annoy you but also be endearing. Instantly a character appeared in my mind. In a scene from the film “Phas Gaye Re Obama”, where a small-town English teacher, with utmost confidence, scolds his students in absolute broken English. This clip was so funny, it had grown beyond the movie and was being passed around on WhatsApp on its own merit. I called my director, Pranay Khanna (an extremely talented in-house director with us at Schbang) to make a case for the actor who played the English teacher. He was absolutely thrilled to be working with this Ishtiyak Khan. By the next day, we received his quote and locked him.
Khan made our set absolutely bliss. He would try his lines out in different ways. Plan out his actions quietly while the rest of the set swarmed around Sonu Sood. When it was time to roll, Ishtiyak never faltered. His lines were always delivered meticulously - no teleprompter required. When we asked him to dance behind our lead actor, he threw his hands in the air and did a little pelvic thrust. The entire set was amazed by the energy he brought on.?
You see, this could have easily been done the way it always has. We get a handsome, fair-skinned model, around Sonu’s height. He would have read the lines as we asked him to, not more, not less. But then where is the fun in that??
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Take The Lead.?
Sometimes, just sometimes, the universe will smile down on you. The client is unsure (shocking, right?) and they want to hear your recommendations for whom they can cast as the lead. Before you pick up the phone to call your influencer team, take a second. Here it is, your opportunity to work with anyone in the industry, assuming they fit in your budget of course. But once you do that, whom could it be? Look for only one thing here - performance. A performance that made you laugh, cry, smile, or just got you plain angry. Try to not look at the numbers on Instagram or their views on YouTube. Numbers are fleeting, feelings are forever.?
Last year, during Diwali, we had the opportunity of collaborating with the EV charger brand, Bolt. Fortunately for us, the client was a risk-taker. Not only that, he was also a Hindi film buff and through conversation, we realized we found the exact same films funny. So of course when the brief came in, we decided to write a comedy film. Lo and behold, he approved it. Now during casting, we had to find an actor not only associated with the comedy genre but someone who excelled in it. That night our team discussed only characters in various films that made us laugh. We made a list, and all those lists had one name in common. Paresh Ganatra. Take your time and google him, he’s most definitely made you laugh. See you wouldn't be able to recognize him off his name alone, he’s not Paresh Rawal. But he is talented and underutilized, which means he’ll probably fit in your budget. This also means that he’s more likely to put 110% of himself into the project than anybody else would.?
We shot this film in the October heat in some of the most crowded places in Mumbai. The Gateway of India, Taj Hotel, a petrol pump at Goregaon. But Paresh was always there for us. He would start running before the director said action and he was always behind the monitor after we said cut. He asked for more takes when it didn’t feel right and he didn’t throw his weight around when didn’t want to take a suggestion. He was a true performer.?
Make A Bank
Just like Ishtiyak and Paresh, India is rife with talent. To make the smartest decision one needs to watch as much content as possible. Look out for these gems. Even if they have one dialogue, one action or just a look. Note that name down or take that screenshot and add it to your bank. I promise it will come in handy someday. Because no matter how big the film industry is, a face can be found.
Before becoming a movie star, Kartik Aryan was in one of the many Imperial Blue ads. Whether you hate him or love him, his screen confidence and comic timing do catch your eye. Another thing to look out for by the way- is confidence on camera. It goes a long way. Here is the conclusion people, to make art we require artists. That’s what your actor on set needs to be. If we get caught up in all the glamor of the A-list name, the followers on Instagram or some other generic litmus test of success, we won’t do justice to the films we’re trying to make. If followers dictated everything, we wouldn’t have a Nawazuddin Siddiqui or a Rajkumar Rao. All we would have are the Kapoors of the world. And who wants a world like that??
Authored by Aaron Caeiro