“I always wanted to make a fun, frolicking movie like Die Hard. That has been the driving force,” says film and commercial producer Nikil Shyam Sunder, who’s currently shooting for his forthcoming production. Following the footsteps of his dad, Nikil joined engineering, in an attempt to “play it safe”. “But soon, I realised that it wasn’t working out,” he says, admitting that he had a tough time clearing the backlogs. He acknowledges the cliché that most filmmakers are engineers. “More than films, I was consumed by television shows. It was my mom who said, ‘why don’t you do something for TV?’”
Nikil was shuttling between cities up North to visit his friends, who were occupied with their Master’s programme. “That was when I reached my tipping point,” he says. After taking up a couple of odd jobs, including news anchoring, Nikil got his first breakthrough when he worked as a production assistant in I Am , directed by Onir. Since childhood, he was obsessed with the US. Which explains why he enrolled for a 11-month production course at New York Film Academy in Los Angeles, and started working as a production manager on feature films, commercial films and music videos. What’s the major difference between the mediums, in terms of the budget? “Shooting a commercial film is relatively easy because you complete the project in a week’s time. So, handling the budget is much easier when it comes to commercials. For a feature film, you are shooting for a longer period, right? Things are bound to go wrong. Which is why we come up with a specific plan during the preproduction stage, keeping an eye on the budget.”
According to Nikil, an ideal production manager is someone who has “patience and the ability to think on his/her feet”. Nikil says that production managers are very much like producers, but without the authority to “call the shots”. “The logistics are our responsibility. Does it mean that production managers aren’t allowed to take creative decisions? “Yes, they are. My job is to understand the director’s vision. Sometimes, the director will have grand ideas,” he laughs, adding, “I need to make sure that it’s all executable. The speciality of a production manager is to make a low-budget movie appear like a spectacle.”
Nikil says he would love to work in Indian films, though, he admits that he has a lot of catching up to do. “To be honest, I stopped following Indian cinema after I left India. Having said that, I follow the works of Mani Ratnam and Anurag Kashyap. They are the ones who are consistently making great stories.” Despite a hectic schedule, Nikil takes time out to watch a Rajinikanth or Kamal Haasan film, if it gets a release in the US. He adds, “A couple of days ago, I watched Baasha; it stands the test of time.”
Earlier this year, Nikil produced a couple of videos for music bands such as Panic! At The Disco and Khalid. Nikil has also worked closely with a bunch of indie bands and international artistes. However, his experience with Lady Gaga was a little too special. “She is the most creative and nicest person I’ve met. I became a bigger fan after I worked with her for G.U.Y. I was very emotional when I watched her performance in A Star is Born,” he says, adding that he’s currently in the process of making his third feature film. His ultimate goal is to make Ramayana like The Lord of The Rings, in terms of the scale. “If I ever accomplish that, I will die a happy man,” he signs off.
