New Delhi, July 22 :IIT-Delhi dropout Kenny Basumatary's basic know-how to choreograph, shoot and edit fights involving actual martial artists encouraged him to make a proper martial arts film with the help of family and friends and a shoe-string budget of Rs 95,000.
Indie filmmakers often rue limited funds but Basumatary, who hails from Assam and played the role of an assistant superintendent of police in Dibakar Banerjee's “Shanghai”, was confident from the beginning about his film “Local Kung Fu”.
“I wanted to make a film no one else could have made, preferably a popular entertainer, and I had the resources at hand, so why not.
“By the time I'd decided to make ‘Local Kung Fu', I'd already made about 10-12 short films and music videos, including 5-6 fight videos.
So I was confident that we would be able to pull off a full-length feature film, with the help of my family and friends,” Basumatary told PTI.
On choosing kung fu as the theme of his film, he says, “India doesn't have a single proper martial arts film.
There are good filmmakers and good martial artists, but no one's combined the two.
I wouldn't call myself a good filmmaker, but I had enough basic know-how to choreograph, shoot and edit fights involving actual martial artists.
