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Director Shyam Madiraju is currently on way to screen his upcoming directorial Harami at Busan International Film Festival. The director says, the film starring Emraan Hashmi in the lead, narrates a tale of harsh reality he has seen in life.
During a recent conversation, the director spoke about the movie, casting Emraan as the negative character, Mumbai and it’s influence on the film and much more. Read it all below.
“I came to Mumbai at the age of 19 and I used to stay in a room of the size of a matchbox. At that time, I would stay outside and walk around the street, observe people, street children and their activities. I remember once I was walking around the station and I saw a young boy trying to snatch something from a person. He saw that I had noticed and was running away, but then I waved at him and said I would not harm him,” Shyam Madiraju told IANS.
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Shyam Madiraju shared, “He came back and I started chatting with him. He was saying how he, along with five other boys, were involved in pick-pocketing and other smalltime unlawful activities for an earning. Two of his friends are drug addicts. It was staggering to know the world of this child. Mumbai is a city where the population is around 17 million, and the maximum number of the people are under 25. Most of them are jobless. In a city that gives you extreme success or extreme failure, these youngsters are dismissed by society that tells them, ‘Tu toh ek harami hai’.”
He added, “Of all the cities I have lived in, Mumbai has so much extremity about it, so ‘Harami’ is my love letter to Mumbai. It acknowledges the reality of what the city is.”
Harami is nominated in the Film, Director and Audience categories, known as the New Currents Award, Kim Jiseok Award and the KNN Audience award respectively, at the film festival.
Speaking about casting Emraan Hashmi in a negative character, Shyam Madiraju said, “In my film, every character holds an element of humanity — even the bad guy of the story, Sagar Bhai, that Emraan plays. I did not show him as a typical bad guy. He is not a bad guy with guns. Once upon a time, he was an English teacher, and then something happened and he came to this side of life.”
Busan International Film Festival 2020 will take place between October 21 and October 30.
