“The locations we shot the film at were very special,” Director, Louis Abdilla

Filmmaker Louis Abdilla talks to Indus Age about filmmaking, his experience of shooting in India recently, his upcoming film Troubled Truth, a drama based around a character who returns home from Australia to India as his father is very ill, and how things quickly get out of hand. Read on.

What inspired you to pursue a career in film production?

As a teenager growing up, I would hire 6 to 8 films each Sunday evening from the local video store and watch them throughout the week. I enjoyed watching films of all genres; I could write pages and pages of my favourite films, there are just too many to list. This was my inspiration to work in the film industry, the love for films and its story telling.

How do you approach the creative aspect of film production, such as script writing and visual style?

It begins with the characters to create a story that is believable, I always ask myself on what I have written, is it believable? can it be possible? During the writing process, I like to visualise the scenes in my head, in many cases I may visualise the scene first and then begin writing.

How do you typically plan and manage the various stages of film production, from pre-production to post-production?

I start by building the best team possible, people who are passionate, creative, and hard working. The film industry is not glamorous, you have to put in long days to get the scene completed. On the flip side it is also a very rewarding feeling once the day of shooting comes to an end, the feeling we have all achieved something special and creative.

How do you handle conflicts or differences of opinion within a production team?

This is a great question, as there can be many opinions – ideas on set, from the script, to the character’s traits, the style the crew wants to shoot, and so much more, there really is no right or wrong in many cases, sometimes you have to go with your gut feeling, the way you see the story play out, although I rarely turn down an opinion or idea from anyone, you never know they may just drop a gold nugget right in front of you. You really need to give people time and hear them out, then make a decision, the key is not to ponder on the information for too long, you need to act fast with a decision being made, wasting time on set will blow the budget.

Can you explain your approach to location scouting, set design, and auditioning

Again, build the best team around you as much as you can, you need to trust the team – put faith in them, give them ownership, they will do the heavy lifting in getting the job done. My role is to review the information being presented to me and I would say that around ~80% of the time, the team hits the bullseye, the rest I’m fine-tuning.

What role do you play in the post-production process, and how do you collaborate with editors and post-production teams?

Once the film is shot, in some ways this is where the hard work begins, Editors need to review so much footage then start putting it together to build the story, vary the shot size & angle, getting the pace right, getting the sound right, building the sound tracks, using the right transitions, improving the colour and much more, there really is a whole heap of work with Post-production. I like to edit the rough cut myself. Then surrounding yourself around a great team to bring the edit to life.  The end result must engage with the audience to emotionally connect to the story through the characters. The audience has to walk away wanting more.

I heard you’re working on a film which has been recently shot in India, a place called Jalandhar in the district of Punjab. How did things go? 

Yes, we just returned from shooting this week. It was a tough shoot as the timeframe was extremely tight, halfway through the shoot we didn’t think it was possible to get all the shots in. The team worked very hard to ensure we got all the shots by the end of the shoot. I was very happy with the end result, and very proud of the cast and crew, they came through big time.

What is the film based on? 

It is a drama based around a character who returns home from Australia to India as his father is very ill, things quickly get out of hand and he finds himself back in his old ways, trying to do right. Unfortunately, he gets himself into a whole lot of trouble.

The movie’s title is Troubled Truth? 

Yes, that’s right.

How did you handle all the logistics of shooting in another country and where was the main crew from?

We had two fantastic professionals on the ground in Jalandhar, Sunju and Balvir, who made everything happen from locations, to props, putting the crew together and catering. They did such an amazing job, a lot of hard work from these two guys which was done over months of planning.  The department heads, Sunju (1st Assistant Director), Gagan, Rohit, Ranjeet, Gogi and their teams were all locally based with an enormous amount of talent and experience, it was such a pleasure to work with them all.

Are the actors from India? 

Yes, the main cast is predominantly from India with many years of experience working in Bollywood. We also had some newcomers which performed at a high level, they have a very bright future in front of them.

How did they go? Was it difficult to source the actors?

I was extremely happy with their performances, they were all professionals at the top of their game; it was very pleasing to work with such a talented cast. I was fortunate to work closely with one of the leading actors Anand, who also assisted me with the casting of the actors. Anand has been working in Bollywood movies for many years. A true professional.

Were there any actors from O/s, and if so, how did they fit into the movie?

Yes, the main actor was Varun Tiwari who was born in India and living in Australia for the past 17 years. Varun fitted in perfectly and is very well known in the Indian community in Australia. We also had a few other actors from Australia who played minor roles.

What was your experience like in India, was it your first time? 

Actually, it was my second time, I travelled to India about 10 years ago to Bombay and Gujarat for a friend’s wedding. The experience was truly amazing, the locations we shot the film at were very special.  India has shown significantly economic progress from my visit over a decade ago. Quality of life is increasing, and business is thriving. I had some great chats to the locals, and all were in favour of the progress in a very optimistic way. Mainly attributed it to the strong leadership of Prime Minister Modi.

What was your fondest memory of India?

This really is a clear and easy answer for me, I was lucky enough to travel with my wife Veronica and brother Joe, we all left India with very fond memories, the greatest being of the hospitality from all the lovely people we met. It was extremely heartwarming and genuine outpour of kindness and love. The delicious vegetarian Punjabi food will be missed. I have no doubt that we have made lifetime friendships and we can’t wait to go back to India to do it all again.