Rebels with a Cause

In his first Punjabi film Stupid 7, writer-director Pali Bhupinder pans his camera on the young and the rebellious

This year, Punjabi cinema may get its first-of-a-kind teenage drama and its first commercial hit too," says a confident Pali Bhupinder. The renowned thespian, author and playwright of Punjabi plays and books has turned director and writer with his first Punjabi film, Stupid 7, the premiere of which will take place on January 30. Based on the Punjabi musical play Me & My Story, the film is about the young and the rebellious.

The film deals with issues that are of concern to teenagers — from crushes to peer pressure, generation gap, harassment, temporary derailments, tragedies, competition, sex, anger, resentment, dreams and aspirations. "It's about seven youngsters and I've strung together seven stories," says Bhupinder, whose theatre background helped him immensely in framing the story, keeping the production costs under control and the script crisp. Backed by five producers, Stupid 7, the director states, kicked off after in-depth research and workshops. "All my actors have been shortlisted from auditions held across seven cities in Punjab, following which we picked the final ten during our workshops in Mohali," says Bhupinder. The cast includes actor Jaswinder Bhalla's son Pukhraj Bhalla, singer Milind Gaba, Ludhiana-based Jasmeet Kaur and Sukhman Brar, Guneet Cour, Karanjit Singh and Saibi Sodhi. Among the seniors are actors Jaswinder Bhalla and Guggu Gill.

"I was not very happy with the kind of films being made in Punjabi cinema and wanted to put the spotlight on theatre actors and relevant stories, so I decided to make this film," says Bhupinder.

The filmmaker says it wasn't easy to make the film, as no one came forward to back a non-starrer teen film. "Which explains the five producers," laughs Bhupinder.

... contd.

ALSO READ

Bansal back in city, Cong leaders told to put up show of(f) strength

To save ‘crucial evidence’, cops left injured unattended

Magic Up His Sleeve

‘Why can’t police admit its mistake... they should apologise to her 2 sons’