Producer Sanjay Gulati, who has been one of the co-producers of the remake of the Tallinn-winning dark comedy Tentigo in Tamil, speaks to The Pioneer about how the film happened, Tentigo being a game changer, and more.
K. Ramya Sree
Modern times have witnessed a growing trend of remakes and reboots. However, remaking an award-winning film comes with great challenges. One needs to be extremely dedicated and sincere to bring to the audience the authentic self of the movie without losing its credibility during the remake. Maybe this is why many producers often do not risk taking on this task.
But these Indian producers—Sanjay Gulati and Neeraj Pandey of Crawling Angel Films and Kaarthekeyen Santhanam of Stone Bench Films—decided to take the risk because, why not?
The film they chose is so interesting that the trio, along with Silent Frames Productions in Sri Lanka, has decided to remake the Tallinn-winning dark comedy Sri Lankan film Tentigo in Tamil.
Of all the Indian languages, are you wondering why they chose Tamil? And of many award-winning films, why did they choose Tentigo? We have one of the producers of the movie, Sanjay Gulati, answer everything about the film in this interaction with The Pioneer.
But first, let us begin with how he stumbled upon Tentigo. As he begins, “There is a co-production market that happens every year in Goa, so in the 2018 IFFI market, this project was pitched to me under a different name. I felt this was an out-of-the-box project, and I wanted to be a part of this project at any cost. From the beginning, I felt this film was a universal subject. There is no particular reason for us to choose the Tamil language. One of our producers is a Tamil native, and it was his idea to remake this movie in Tamil.”
The Tallinn-winning film is a dark comedy about a family dealing with a deceased father’s throbbing boner by debutant director Ilango Ram from Sri Lanka, which originally featured in Sinhala and earned accolades.
Sanjay believes this movie would be a game changer because: “Even if I recall old films, we do not have a proper dark comedy film. We only had adult comedy movies. I can hardly recall authentic dark comedy films except for a few. Tentigo is an effort from us to give the audience a real dark comedy experience and treat them as intellectuals. The reviews for the international version have been exceptional so far.”
The team has, of course, decided to Indianise a bit of the concept; however, he says they have ensured the quality of the movie is not going down. “Since the same director is helming the film, I have more hopes that this will be made in a better way,” says the independent producer, for whom this is his first film in South Cinema. He looks forward to it, as he feels south cinema is one of the biggest industries in Indian cinema.
As an independent producer, passion is what drove him to take up the project, and their actors are also the ones for whom cinema comes over money. He shared, “As far as the actors’ pay packet side is concerned, I’m working with actors who speak with the subject from the heart. It is a big thing to work in a film like this; it is not like we want to pay them less, but we are making the movie with full sincerity, so if we generate profits, my actors will be the first to enjoy them.”
Furthermore, he also spoke about the perks that established banners have over independent producers, and he explains, “If a film is being produced by renowned banners, then there are high chances that the film will be taken over by some good OTT platforms because of the long-term relationships the production house has with them and the confidence the OTT platforms have in banners because they have proven their worth in the past. But when it comes to independent producers like us, they have their apprehensions.” Moreover, he feels co-production is a more successful model, as he has collaborated with many films outside India where his experiences have been successful.
Modern times have witnessed a growing trend of remakes and reboots. However, remaking an award-winning film comes with great challenges. One needs to be extremely dedicated and sincere to bring to the audience the authentic self of the movie without losing its credibility during the remake. Maybe this is why many producers often do not risk taking on this task.
But these Indian producers—Sanjay Gulati and Neeraj Pandey of Crawling Angel Films and Kaarthekeyen Santhanam of Stone Bench Films—decided to take the risk because, why not?
The film they chose is so interesting that the trio, along with Silent Frames Productions in Sri Lanka, has decided to remake the Tallinn-winning dark comedy Sri Lankan film Tentigo in Tamil.
Of all the Indian languages, are you wondering why they chose Tamil? And of many award-winning films, why did they choose Tentigo? We have one of the producers of the movie, Sanjay Gulati, answer everything about the film in this interaction with The Pioneer.
But first, let us begin with how he stumbled upon Tentigo. As he begins, “There is a co-production market that happens every year in Goa, so in the 2018 IFFI market, this project was pitched to me under a different name. I felt this was an out-of-the-box project, and I wanted to be a part of this project at any cost. From the beginning, I felt this film was a universal subject. There is no particular reason for us to choose the Tamil language. One of our producers is a Tamil native, and it was his idea to remake this movie in Tamil.”
The Tallinn-winning film is a dark comedy about a family dealing with a deceased father’s throbbing boner by debutant director Ilango Ram from Sri Lanka, which originally featured in Sinhala and earned accolades.
Sanjay believes this movie would be a game changer because: “Even if I recall old films, we do not have a proper dark comedy film. We only had adult comedy movies. I can hardly recall authentic dark comedy films except for a few. Tentigo is an effort from us to give the audience a real dark comedy experience and treat them as intellectuals. The reviews for the international version have been exceptional so far.”
The team has, of course, decided to Indianise a bit of the concept; however, he says they have ensured the quality of the movie is not going down. “Since the same director is helming the film, I have more hopes that this will be made in a better way,” says the independent producer, for whom this is his first film in South Cinema. He looks forward to it, as he feels south cinema is one of the biggest industries in Indian cinema.
As an independent producer, passion is what drove him to take up the project, and their actors are also the ones for whom cinema comes over money. He shared, “As far as the actors’ pay packet side is concerned, I’m working with actors who speak with the subject from the heart. It is a big thing to work in a film like this; it is not like we want to pay them less, but we are making the movie with full sincerity, so if we generate profits, my actors will be the first to enjoy them.”
Furthermore, he also spoke about the perks that established banners have over independent producers, and he explains, “If a film is being produced by renowned banners, then there are high chances that the film will be taken over by some good OTT platforms because of the long-term relationships the production house has with them and the confidence the OTT platforms have in banners because they have proven their worth in the past. But when it comes to independent producers like us, they have their apprehensions.” Moreover, he feels co-production is a more successful model, as he has collaborated with many films outside India where his experiences have been successful.
