Netflix is warming up to more regional content with its first Indian original: the nerdy sex-comedy Brahman Naman. Here, rebel film-maker Q shares the blueprint of his festival-touring indie:
Raging hormones + ’80s geeks
Puberty was a wholly different experience for the smartphone-free ’80s generation — scrolling past your awkward years wasn’t an option. IRL humiliation and wild hormones drive Q’s coming-of-age comedy Brahman Naman, where four determined high-school quizzers chase two goals — winning the national championship and losing their virginity. Titli star Shashank Arora (Brahman) leads the tribe of non-alpha geeks in the film, which featured in the World Cinema category at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.
National rivalries + cool cameos
While Q himself grew up in Kolkata, the “quizzing capital” of the country, Brahman Naman is set in writer N Ramachandran’s hometown, Bangalore. “My friends were the country’s quiz champs; the Calcutta team would win all the time and that’s a part of the joke in the film”, he says. Look out for cameos from known Bangalore faces like Sid Mallya, who plays “a rich, successful, antagonistic spirit to Naman”.
Explicit content + shock value
Best known for his irreverent style of film-making, Q’s 2011 release Gandu was banned by the government for bringing underground subcultures and exposed genitals to the big screen. Audiences at film festivals left theatres either upset or uncomfortable, and he hopes for a similar reaction with Brahman Naman. “I’m thrilled when people are shocked. What’s the point of an experiment if there’s no reaction? You want the laboratory to go up in smoke every now and then.”
Brahman Naman premieres on Netflix on July 7
