Indian Australian’s debut film opens for commercial run
A young Indian Australian movie director is making waves with the commercial release of his controversial debut movie in Australia.
“2:37″, a teen suicide drama by 22-year-old Murali Thalluri, opened across 50 screens in Australia Thursday. In interviews coinciding with the movie’s release, Thalluri revealed how he wrote the script after a friend’s suicide and his own attempted suicide.
The Adelaide-based Thalluri told the Age newspaper how his life went into a spiral after a 17-year-old female school friend of his, Kelly, committed suicide in September 2004, leaving a videotaped suicide note.
Six months later, Thalluri, who was then working at the tax office - “the most boring job you could ever have” - started having kidney problems. It was then that he contemplated suicide.
He gulped down a fistful of codeine tablets with a bottle of whisky. He, however, vomited and survived.
“I tried to kill myself (and) then and there it came to me how people just don’t understand suicide,” he told the Australian Associated Press.
He then sat down and wrote the script for ‘2:37′ in 36 hours.
Thalluri was, however, upset by reports that he had invented the Kelly story. The Australian newspaper reported that it had found upon investigation that there was no such death.
“Kelly is not the name and the dates aren’t the right dates but the event actually did happen,” he told the newspaper.
He said he had kept the name and the date confidential to show sensitivity for the victim’s family.
He told screendaily.com that the family had seen the film and were “very, very moved - and thankful that I didn’t go into detail”.
Thalluri, who has no prior film making experience, also revealed how he had faced difficulties in finding financiers for his project.
He took a book containing a list of 20 of South Australia’s richest citizens and started knocking on their doors. Finally, one of the state’s biggest property developers said he would support the film - which eventually cost about $1.1 million to finish.
As for choosing the cast, Thalluri took inspiration from the book “Catch Me If You Can” and conned his way into an Adelaide drama studio as an instructor.
He told the Courier Mail of Brisbane that he found his unknown cast members through contacts made during his 10-week stint as a teacher.
Born to Indian parents, both of whom are doctors, Thalluri is the youngest director whose film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May this year. He received a 17-minute ovation post-screening.
The film has now been selected for the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
The young director is, however, heartbroken that “2:37″ has been given an ‘R’ rating, which means it will be screened to viewers of 18 years and above. He feels that the target audience for whom he had made the film won’t get to see it.
According to the Age report, Thalluri is currently working on a new feature, a comedy that he describes as a blend of Woody Allen and Charlie Kaufman but refused to give any details.
“If I’m writing something, I generally don’t want to tell the world about it because it dissipates the energy you need to write it,” he said. — IANS
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