His first movie Love, Wrinkle-free was a witty, light-hearted film with a serious theme. Director Sandeep Mohan is back with his second movie Hola Venky which tells the journey of a techie from Matunga, Mumbai to the US. Starring Roger Narayan and Sonia Balcazar, Hola Venky is slated for a US release on January 25 and will have an online release in India in February. “The movie is about this guy Venky, a techie who goes to the US and his journey. Eventually, he faces a question as to what is it to be a man in the 21st century,” states Sandeep and adds, “I am sorry to put it this way but the story is about this guy’s journey from his groin to the heart. It is a small journey but it is very difficult and is filled with a lot of hurdles.”
Like his earlier indie movie, the tone is humorous while dealing with male psyche. “There has been so much focus on below the belt humour. We have handled the theme in a fun way and anyone who has grown up in such an environment will relate to it. Men need to change a bit with the changing times. Women are much more confident and are breadwinners. Men are a little confused - they see their wives and girlfriends and it is not like earlier times,” he states and quips, “The movie is not definitely from my own life,” smiles Sandeep.
Shot in Mumbai and majorly in the US (“We could stay in the houses and shoot it for free”), Hola Venky has been made just with a budget of 10 lakhs and with three crew members!
“Besides me, there has been my cameraman and my sound recordist who travelled to US to shoot,” he says. Sandeep says he likes to approach deeper themes in a serious way but with a pinch of humour.
The director previously worked as an assistant director to Sanjay Leela Bhansali for Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam . “It was a larger than life movie and I got lost in the big world,” he remembers. “It has been 17 years since Hum Dil De …. I worked as a copywriter in an ad agency and now I am happy telling my kind of stories without a compromise,” he says.
