![ACV](http://i1.wp.com/asianculturevulture.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/acvsubsbannernaked.jpg")
Ahem…
By Sailesh Ram (editor of www.asianculturevulture.com)
THOSE of you who know me well will know I have a parallel career – no, not surfing or stand-up comedy, though both crossed my path in my early 30s (and more in my fantasises than anything else…haha), and I am great believer in nothing being too late! Haha.
My day job has always been journalism, in one form or another, and I’ve been an editor, more recently – and for more than a decade and five now – editor of two publications – the digital publication, www.asianculturevulture.com, which I founded in 2013 (celebrating 10 years) and still run, and prior to that I was the editor of a national UK weekly Asian newspaper, Eastern Eye.
Many moons ago, I had a teenage novel published – ‘Asian Triangle’ – you can still find it on Amazon. (Best to click on the author link there).
It was commissioned and was a boys’ own teenage story, with a young Asian investigative journalist sleuthing his way through technology, drugs and some odd deaths – and finally having to confront an overambitious tycoon-inventor, lost in his own ego and hubris.
Fast forward to October 15 2023 (Sunday just gone) and I’ve just seen my own name in bright lights on the big screen at the very end of a feature film, called, ‘Victor’.
Yes, I write film scripts, and screenplays too!
You will see story by … yes that’s me! You have to wait for the end credits… and see my full surname, which I use for my creative writing.
It was thrilling beyond comprehension, personally speaking, and took me back to the first time I ever saw ‘Asian Triangle’ and marvelled at my name on the front cover. (See below) Me? On the front cover…shucks!
I even have a cameo at the very front of this film, ‘Victor’ – as a journalist – haha – I actually quite forgot I was going to be in it.
You have to go and see it! And not just because I wrote the original story. (See listings below – and hurry!)
In 2008/9, writer-director Sudipto Sarkar (who also directed ‘Operation Mayfair’, which is on Netflix) came to me with a tale of jewels, crime, greed and murder…he had read ‘Asian Triangle’… and we had worked together…
We found our setting in the crash of 2008 and a lot of very ‘exposed’ people as the phrase goes…
Some things have stayed the same, while others changed through several drafts and the Bollywood writers finally getting their hands on it.
It is a Bollywood film, in that it has two recognisable Hindi cinema stars – Amit Sadh and Aahana Kumra and also features British Asian rapping sensation, Juggy D – making his feature film debut – he hasn’t even been in a short film (to my knowledge) – go see it just for him. He is fantastic! And has a big screen future in front of him, if he wants it… and yes, there is music and he does acapella at one point… the music video scenes are especially good and the dance scene is a little naughty! I didn’t write these… haha. Talk to Sudipto. Haha.
The acting, direction and cinematography are of a high order and the plot constantly evolves and has you guessing; we spent many an hour discussing the intricacies of motivation, character and perspective and the full first screenplay and draft took around two years to complete – neither Sudipto, nor myself worked on it full time then – we had to earn a living.
I am absolutely buzzing! It’s been a long cherished dream and Sudipto will always have a special place in my heart for making it happen – along with everyone else who worked on it so hard with such care and skill. I salute you all! 🙏🙏🙏
So, few films go from the page to the screen that I feel truly blessed! Thank you, gods, the stars, whatever…
It is on a limited run at the moment – of its future, I can’t say but do catch it if you can – watch the trailer, if nothing else for now. (Full listings PDF is on another page – see link below)
Back to writing about art and culture for acv & editing; and in between completing a novel (two years in the making), and now a short film (in collaboration with another exciting new directorial voice) and more feature scripts… Thanks for reading this/supporting acv! 🙏
Listings – click HERE
Trailer
More on the film…
Asian Triangle
