Esham and Haseen: We are on cloud nine

‘Ikkat’, a Kannada comedy starring Nagabhushana and Bhoomi Shetty, was shot during the lockdown. 

Growing up in Channarayapatna, a small town in Hassan, Esham and Haseen Khan were exposed to world cinema through their father’s VHS store. They were fascinated by the cinematic genius of Steven Spielberg and James Cameron.

While they were drawn to action-dramas, they also enjoyed watching clean comedies of Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Anant Nag with family. You witness the influence of these yesteryear classics in their Kannada web series ‘Loose Connection’ (2017) and the recent comedy-drama ‘Ikkat’.

Their journey to being filmmakers appears like a small tribute to Hollywood giant Quentin Tarantino’s saying of ‘I didn’t go to film schools. I went to films’. Esham and Haseen cashed in on the internet revolution and learnt the art from YouTube videos.

‘Loose Connection’, made with Raghu Shastry, is credited as Kannada’s first-ever web series. The hilarious story of a youngster’s aimless life and his multiple relationship failures was a huge hit. Rakshit Shetty, one of the pioneers of new generation Kannada cinema, had lauded the team’s effort on social media.

‘Ikkat’, their maiden feature film, was widely praised when it dropped on Amazon Prime Video last week. Starring NS Nagabhushana and Bhoomi Shetty, the film is the first Kannada film to use the pandemic as its backdrop. In a chat with Showtime, the director duo spoke on their journey so far. Excerpts:

How did filmmaking become a serious pursuit?

Esham: The film industry was unreachable for us. We watched many Hollywood films and as we grew up, we loved experimenting with the latest technology. It was YouTube that showed us the way. We opened our channel ‘Jumpcuts’ in 2014 and kept creating content.

Haseen: Cinema was rocket science for us till we learnt its nuances from YouTube. I remember we would make short films on handycams, camcorders, and mobiles every weekend. In the ‘Jumpcuts’ channel, our skits and comedy sketches did well. That made us believe that we could become directors.

Was it strange to debut with a web series instead of a feature?

Esham: RJ Pradeepa of Sakkath Studio approached us for a web series. We were waiting for a chance to showcase our talent. Of course, the format was different from the three-act structure of a movie. The entire process was new for us but we discovered ourselves through ‘Loose Connection’.

Haseen: In a web series, you must consider every episode as a film. The challenge is to end each episode with suspense. We were thrilled when we received appreciation messages from people from the industry. Interestingly, people prefer ‘Loose Connection’ over ‘Ikkat’.

When did you both discover your strength in comedy?

Esham: We grew up watching Anant Nag’s Ganesha series (‘Gauri Ganesha’, ‘Ganeshana Maduve'). They were films that could be watched with parents without feeling awkward. We wondered why such kinds of films didn’t come out later. We love situational and visual comedies. We aren’t big fans of dialogue-oriented humour.

Haseen: We discovered our sense of humour when we did comedy sketches for our channel. Chinese comedies like ‘Kung Fu Hustle’, 'Shaolin Soccer' and Edgar Wright’s films influenced our thinking.

Apart from your creative filmmaking, the characters in your films are quirky and unique. People loved NASA and Zapak from ‘Loose Connection’ and Dude Maga from ‘Ikkat’. Tell us about your writing process.

Esham: These characters are based on our observations. Dude Maga was born out of people addicted to Tik Tok. We also keep an eye on interesting people on social media.

Haseen: When we sit to write, we first create characters. Once all the characters are ready, we write a story around them. We like to make character-based films.

Your stories and humour are rooted in the milieu...

Esham: We hail from a small town. So we like reflecting on the everyday life of common people. Many situations you see in our works were faced by us.

Haseen: I think it’s important to observe what’s happening around you while writing a comedy script. Otherwise, the humour will feel forced.

How did ‘Ikkat’ happen?

Esham: Our confidence was very low when the pandemic began. Our second web series ‘Hate You Romeo’ hasn't released for varying reasons. We had nothing to show after ‘Loose Connection’ and cinema is our only source of income. This adversity forced us to make a film under our own banner.

Haseen: We were tired of sitting without work in the lockdown. So we decided to make a movie. It was possible thanks to our team. People have loved the film and we are on cloud nine.