Ravi Kapoor on bringing his film Four Samosas to the Tribeca Film Festival, brown reps and more

In Four Samosas, a robbery comedy that premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, four bad guys hatch a plot to steal jewelry from a supermarket in LA’s “Little India.” Between Vinny – a wannabe rapper, Zak – a Bollywood-obsessed dreamer, Anjali – a resourceful local news publisher and Paru – an IT graduate trapped in immigration hell, they quite a sophisticated group. Directed by Ravi Kapoor, the film takes place in a hilarious sequence of events as the characters unwittingly embark on a journey of self-discovery while trying to steal some diamonds.

After the heist film ended up winning hearts at the international film festival, Filmfare caught up with Ravi Kapoor to dissect what it’s involved in creating lovable, under-represented brown-skinned characters in Hollywood and the never-ending craze for Bollywood.

Four Samosas has such a fun concept. How did you come to it?

I’ve always wanted to make a movie about heist but it’s a movie about lo-fi heist, something that doesn’t involve guns and car chases and big tech witches. I wanted to do something with a higher emotional rate, something a little more quirky. I explored this concept six years ago and I never really did. When I got back to the idea, I was excited to do something set in a Little India neighborhood in North America because I wanted to explore that community as well. Then I started writing it with Venk, the lead actor in mind, and I was so excited that he was playing the lead role and I thought he was going to be different from your typical lead role. And obviously the movie is about community, about bringing people together for a project, and I recognize that in a number of ways.

How did you write the characters?

Each of these characters are people who probably live on the margins of life, which has always fascinated me as non-mainstream people. They are usually people when we see them in life we ​​probably wouldn’t give them two glances. They are eccentric and the movie itself is eccentric. It’s a bit like a circus. I wanted to make sure they had a bit of a clownish feel to them, too, and in some ways. They are all doing this heist for different reasons. The great thing is that they find each other at the end of the movie. Even though they think they are loners, they still discover that there is a village for them to join.

The movie was impressive but we felt the influence of Wes Anderson…

As a filmmaker, I have a lot of influence but Wes Anderson is definitely a man with great work. It’s clear he’s working on a production design budget that he can do. But there is certainly a visual connection to some of his films alongside Delicatessen (Jean Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro), an influential French film. There’s definitely a connection to movies like Napoleon Dynamite (Jared Hess), an unusual comedy that came out about 15-20 years ago and has become a cult classic. But I wanted to create a clear visual style for this film. Part of the way to do that is to set restrictions. For example, we only use one lens – a 14mm lens for everything whether it’s a wide shot or a close-up. We shot with 3:4 aspect ratio so we have more boxy frames and we added curved corners to give it a nostalgic feel so it’s like a VHS video. Also, I must say that I was influenced by Chaplin and Buster Keaton’s silent films and early black and white films.

Four Samosas is a comedy but it also highlights a lot of issues facing South Asians in the West…

I don’t want to hit the social aspects of the film. I wanted them to be an integral part of the characters and their world without becoming a problem-based movie. I wanted it to be hilarious and it’s a heist movie and a love story but I think in the world the characters live in, these problems still exist. It’s like we have a character who is an IT immigrant who is dealing with green card issues and that frustration becomes the driving force. We have characters who are looking to create a revolutionary homeland. They are looking behind rather than forward and want to recover what they thought they had left behind. All those things are in the movie but I definitely don’t want them to be the focal point of the movie and just want them to be part of the background.

You have been working in the West for a while. In your opinion, how has brown color evolved over the years?

I was on a show called Gideon’s Crossing and at that time I was the only South Asian actor to play a regular role on television. This was over 20 years ago. Now, you turn on the TV and there’s a brown actor in almost every show. When I first came to America, we were still often used as a joke and it all revolved around being the focus and us being the humorous reliever. We had no control over the joke. I think we’re seeing more diversity in representation now. And we have more control over the joke and the story. I think Hollywood has realized that there are stories to be told and there is money to be made by diversifying what people see in front of the camera and diversifying what goes on behind the camera. People are ready to see each other’s stories and windows into each other’s cultures are now profitable businesses.

Amidst the hype surrounding Ms. Marvel and RRR, South Asian movies and shows are having a good time. Why do you think that happened and why now?

The general public is now more open to other stories and cultures. I think the whole streaming boom has opened the minds of audiences. I think Hollywood has underestimated people’s willingness to see stories from other places and now we can turn on the TV and watch a Korean drama or a South Korean drama. Asia of India or a soap opera of Pakistan. It’s also interesting that it also allows for more crossover stories.

Bollywood references have always been a part of Indian stories abroad. Can you talk about the meaning it holds?

I think especially in South Asian American culture there’s always a lot of appeal to Bollywood. Most of our parents were born and raised in India, then moved to the US or UK and one of the things that kept them attached to their homeland was Bollywood movies. Bollywood is still a platform and it becomes the navel of the past that we may never have really known. So one of the characters in the Four Samosas dreamed of going to Bollywood and becoming an actor. He doesn’t really know what that entails but it’s a way for him to connect with a place he’s never really known but in some ways is a bit of a fantasy. Bollywood has certainly created a fantasy that we have in mind about India. And he realizes that he can get that fantasy another way – what he’s really looking for is love. In a way, Bollywood and love are very similar things. They are too consuming and too big and both open your heart in spite of yourself.

Four Samosas premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

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