Shantanu Anam talks about his film Dilli Dark, importance of film festivals for ‘content-driven’ movies | Exclusive

Actor and writer Shantanu Anam is back to enthrall the audience with his role in the movie Dilli Dark. The film premiered at the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival and received a great response from the audience. 

Helmed by debutant director Dibakar Das Roy, Dilli Dark is a feature film that tells the story of Michael Okeke, a Nigerian student living in New Delhi who wants to get his MBA and settle in India his part-time job gives him a dubious double life in a city notoriously difficult for outsiders. 

Recently, Shantanu Anam who plays the role of Debu, a dark skin coloured Bengali boy in the film opened up about the film, and his character and talked about how important film festivals are for content-driven films like Dilli Dark. 

Talking about the film, Shantanu Anam said that the film is very ‘anti-festival’ as it is not to slow or boring and said, “Dilli Dark is an independent feature film directed by Dibakar Das Roy, it’s his debut film as a director. It's a film that satirizes the concept of racism in general but its depiction is done in a very entertaining fashion. It follows the life of a character named Michael Okekey, who is a Nigerian dealing with the racism that Delhi has to offer. Apart from racism, he has to deal with how Delhi can be as a city, a little harsh, a little cruel but also teaches you a lesson along the way.”

He added, “So it’s a story about him, and my character is named Debu who is a friend of Michaels and also a resident of Delhi. He is a Bengali staying in Delhi for a considerable amount of time. He is also not a native and he is also a dark-skinned boy dealing with the racism and has dealt with the kind of racism we subject to Indians also. It’s not like Indians are only racist towards people from Africa, we are racist towards northeasterns, and South Indians but the thing with the film is, while it’s dealing with topics like this, it’s dealing with topics like religion and faith, it’s dealing with topics like race, all of this is done in a very light-hearted and entertaining fashion. It’s not a typical festival film, If I may say that. While it’s premiering on MAMI and getting a great response, in many ways it’s an anti-festival film. It’s not slow, it’s not boring, it doesn’t take itself too seriously and it doesn’t take the audience’s time for granted. It keeps you entertained while delivering the message.” 

He further shed light on his character and revealed what made him say yes to the role, “My character was not typically hero of friend. As an actor, most of the offers in mainstream movies end up with you being the hero ka friend. Debu, my character has lots of layers to it, and apart from this, he is also an extremely odd fellow, he is an extremely ajeeb banda and I like playing ajeeb bande. He was a real pleasure to play, I think he is one of my favorite characters that I have played up till now.”

Talking about the importance of Film Festivals for content-driven films, Shantanu said, “The thing is that, for a bigger production house, getting a very lucrative OTT deal is very easy. If you are a Dharma or an Applause, no matter what film you make, it won’t take you anything to sell the film’s OTT rights for Rs 10-15 crore.” 

He added, “But for all content-driven films like ours, even if we know in our hearts that it’s a theatrical or OTT film, we have to go the OTT route Festival routes are the ultimate validation for us for OTTs. Now when it has premiered on MAMI and it will have an international premiere at Tallinn, and get validation on these two film festivals, it will be a lot easier for us to go ahead and sell it. Basically find it the right audience in terms of whether it is OTT or theatrical and we are in the process of closing it right now. So for that, I think it is very important to get the validation of the film festivals.”

Dilli Dark starring Shantanu Anam, Geetika Vidya Ohlyan, and Samuel Robinson recently premiered at the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival and is now all set to have an international premiere at Tallinn Black Nights Festival.