Tag Archives: Amara Karan

Jul2

The Gang’s All Here

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On Sunday, from just after lunch until just after midnight, almost the whole team were back together. But this time it wasn’t in a curry-house in lovely Leicester. We were holed-up in a rather swish suite at The Savoy. Slumming it again.

We were picking-up two keys scenes to develop the relationship between Shalini (Amara Karan) and Mark (Tom Mison). Both are busy actors: Amara has just started rehearsing with the RSC and Tom is on stage eight-shows-a-week in the West End hit, Posh.

So, Sunday and part of Monday was our only opportunity to get this done and everyone responded, as always, with wit, enthusiasm and focus.

And why a suite at The Savoy? Well, the staff and the view are two great reasons. Even as a sweaty film crew we were treated like treasured guests; Julia Harris, the director of Entertainment Sales really couldn’t do enough to help. And what a vista: Big Ben, The Wheel and the Thames. All from angles that we rarely see. It says, “We’re getting married” in a very short shorthand. 

It was great to be shooting again. Amit Gupta and his team fell into lockstep instantly. Roger Pratt and Tommy Finch lit the space very economically and the crew glided past each other like dancers.

Even though we were outside on a lovely day on Monday it was much more of a challenge. Tabard Gardens is a small urban green-space surrounded by redbrick blocks of flats. Perfect as a Leicester backdrop.  But, well, noisy. The locals were very accommodating; turning down their music and swerving the set. But something was up in the skies over London, with helicopters buzzing us throughout the shoot. We must have counted fifty fly-pasts.

But when you have a actors and crew who know, like and respect each other, under a director who’s clearly enjoying himself then things start to come together quickly.

We shot-out the scenes, said thank-you to our stars and headed into London for some restaurant establishers and general views of this beautiful capital on a fabulous evening, blessed with spectacular cloudscapes.

And, because Amit’s working with the best young editor in the world, Eddie Hamilton, the scenes dropped right in as if they’d always been there.

Next stop: distributor screenings.

Mar1

Talent!

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The team behind Jadoo are thrilled to announce that we have a complete cast!

Bringing her bright, sparky character to set, Amara Karan (from Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited and Nigel Cole’s upcoming StudioCanal release All in Good Time) will play Shalini, the driving force behind the reunion of her feuding father and uncle.  Shalini’s father, Raja Chandana, is played by Harish Patel, whose credits include Run, Fatboy, Run and Buddha of Suburbia, and will spark off comedy favourite, Kulvinder Ghir (loved for his roles in Rita, Sue & Bob Too, Bend It Like Beckham & the sketch show Goodness Gracious Me), who plays Jagi, his ill-tempered younger brother.

Casting always presents a unique set of challenges, and the Jadoo team is fortunate to have on board the wonderfully intuitive Sam Jones who has worked with Amit and the Producers to provide an outstanding line-up.  As well as assembling a cast that looks, and feels, like a genuine family, Sam also had to select actors comfortable with speaking Hindi so they can bring to life the tears and laughter in Amit’s script.  And so, before the shoot, we find ourselves feeling rather excited about a cast that so neatly fits these attributes.

Joining our leads the Jadoo team welcomes Tom Mison, Shalini’s fiancé, who recently starred in One Day with Anne Hathaway; Harvey Virdi, Jagi’s long-suffering wife; Adeel Akhtar of Four Lions fame; and Nikesh Patel, Shalini’s witty younger brother Dee.  We’re also delighted to be joined by talented and experienced actors Paul Bazeley, Antony Bunsee, Ray Panthaki & writer and TV presenter Hardeep Singh Koli.

And last, but by no means least, we are thrilled to have on board internationally renowned chef and actress Madhur Jaffrey, who will host the ‘Kings of Curry’ competition at the film’s climax where she will play herself.  Needless to say the entire crew is extremely excited to welcome her on set.

Three days to go!

Feb20

Grandmother’s Footsteps

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Casting is a delicate process and perhaps one of the few parts of film production that requires an alchemist. Luckily we have one of those: our casting director Sam Jones CDG.

Despite having the name of a lumberjack Sam is, rather, a driven, lovely, flawlessly tasteful woman. She never gets it wrong. In the last 18 months she’s cast Amit’s first film, Resistance – with Andrea Riseborough and Michael Sheen – as well as casting for Sheen himself his epic Passion and his sell-out Hamlet at the Young Vic.

But it took us a while to find our perfect Shalini. And then Amara Karan walked through the door; fresh from her first all-out lead in Nigel Cole’s upcoming All In Good Time. She’s just superb in that.

She’s also uncannily similar to the character Amit created for Shalini: highly educated, beautiful and sparky. A woman who just won’t take no for an answer.

Bingo.

But we needed to cast our Shalini before we could commit to her warring father and uncle – the chefs Raja and Jagi. And so now we are seeing a raft of the funniest men in the Indian and British Asian talent pool. We should be announcing that in the next few hours. Yes, hours.

And then, save for Shalini’s fiancé Mark, we’ll be there.

Casting is a wonderful, worrying and wonky process. It’s never linear; there are inevitable disappointments as schedules clash and stars collide (sometimes literally). But these stumbles nearly always cause happier accidents.

Two steps forward; one step back.