Niddhish Puuzhakkal talks about his upcoming Bollywood debut Ego. The psychological thriller, starring Arshad Warsi and Juhi Chawla in the leading roles, explores claustrophobia, drawing from the filmmaker's own childhood experiences and his background as a psychologist.
Famous ad filmmaker Niddhish Puuzhakkal is awaiting the release of his Bollywood debut film Ego, which stars Arshad Warsi and Juhi Chawla in the leading roles. In an exclusive conversation with DNA, Niddhish shares that his film explores claustrophobia, drawing from his own childhood experiences and his background as a psychologist.
"Ego is inspired from an experience in my childhood. Some kids shut me inside a broken hut for a couple of hours. That feeling of being stuck kind of carried on with me, even in my 30s. Then I was reading about this process in Egypt called immurement, in which the people who have committed crimes are locked into a small closed space. It piqued my interest, and that's when I started writing the film", Niddhish told how the idea of Ego came to him.
The debut director added how he finalised Arshad Warsi for the film as he stated, "I didn't wish to have a typical casting. Arshad is known for his comic roles but I believe he is one of the most underrated actors. He hasn't done anything like this before so he will be a big surprise package. I am rooting for him, I think he will win awards for his performance because he has done a fabulous job."
When asked how Niddhish shifted from being a psychologist to filmmaking, Niddhish said to DNA, "I have been extremely curious about how mind works from a very long time. There are only two passions in my life, films and psychology, and I have realised that psychology also helps me tell better stories because I write the narrative in such a way that it would be psychologically appealing to certain type of people. I also come from advertising, so it's an interesting mix because we think about target groups and who we are marketing or selling this film to. We all see the world very differently so I wanted to share my world or how I see the world, and thus, psychology came into picture, and the whole thing came together."
Ego also features Divya Dutta, Anirudh Tanwar, Gauahar Khan, Jitendra Joshi, and Prakash Belawadi in prominent roles. The stakeholders are still finalising whether the film will have a theatrical release or a direct-to-digital release on a streaming platform. Niddhish Puuzhakkal has also made a Malayalam film, which will be released later this year.
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