Chicago-based Indian-American filmmaker Naveen Chathapuram's debut film, The Last Victim, has an interesting back story. The idea of the film - set in a small southwestern town in the US - was brought to Chathapuram by his friend Neal 'Doc' Justin, an anthropologist.
The script was completed in a couple of months and prepped for production in 2002. But the primary location - Mount Lemon - burnt down in a forest fire, and the project was put on the backburner. Literally.
Fast forward 16 years and The Last Victim beckoned the first-time director from the dusty shelves where it had been left untouched for over a decade-and-a-half. Ashley James Louis, an up-and-coming writer, brought out the first draft of the screenplay in a few months and the crew got down to work. The film is now slated for a summer 2021 release.
A neo-western thriller starring Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Blade 2), Ali Larter (Resident Evil, Final Destination) and Ralph Ineson (The Witch, Chernobyl), it examines isolation, disillusionment, desperation and violence.
With modern-day outlaws, terrifying and determined criminals, an ageing local sheriff, a married couple drawn into the game of vengeance, survival here is the only priority. It is co-produced under Chathapuram’s film and television production company in Chicago called Immortal Thoughts.
Given his Indian origins, comparisons with M Night Shyamalan are inevitable. But Chathapuram, who has been part of various projects, including Brown Nation (a sitcom on Netflix), the animated film Night of the Living Dead and Haunted, believes there cannot be another Shyamalan. He considers himself lucky to have worked with people from a diverse set of backgrounds.
"Professionally, issues regarding race and/or ethnicity are rare in my circle. The hope is one would judge my work for its quality and not for my background. As an artist, I want the freedom to tell the stories I want to tell, regardless of my ethnicity. Having said that, I’m extremely proud of my Indian heritage and I’m honoured to be representing their voices in Hollywood," he says.
When you're a Hollywood director, one has the good fortune of working with actors you grew up watching. In Chathapuram’s case, the nostalgia and excitement came in the form of Perlman, who plays the role of Sheriff Hickey.
"I remember watching his Golden Globe-winning role in the Beauty and the Beast (TV Series, 1987-1990) and The Name of the Rose (with Sean Connery, 1986). To have him accept the role was surreal," says the filmmaker who wants to follow greats such as Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, Oliver Stone, Francis Ford Coppola, Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron, and many more in his Hollywood journey.
With the second coronavirus wave rearing its ugly head, one is reminded of how entertainment was one industry which was hit hard by the pandemic. But it brought some welcome changes too, believes the filmmaker.
"The biggest impact was the acceleration of the adoption to streaming. It expedited the process by almost 10 years. Another significant change is how technology helped improve the post-production work-flow. I could edit a film sitting in my office in Chicago, while my editor John Chimples, sat in his summer home in Montauk, at the tip of Long Island, New York. We used software with screen sharing and cloud streaming function, where the editor and I could simultaneously watch the footage without any latency. The same went for sound," he explains.
Regardless of the film’s box office collections and what ‘critics’ might say, it’s always good to hear of an Indian in Hollywood.