Hola Venky!
Hola Venky!

After his last film, Love, Wrinkle-free was given an “Adult” certification and could not be sold to television channels, Sandeep Mohan shot another film “guerrilla-style” in 24 days with a 3 member crew and a budget of only 10 lakhs! This film, Hola Venky! is also in a way, a reaction to the Censor Board but a new way model to make independent films and survive in the industry. Lead actor, Roger Narayan (who plays Venky) shares some behind-the-scenes pictures with us and tells us 10 things we didn’t know about his character! Enjoy 🙂

Here’s a trailer of the film:

1. Venky jogged through Chinatown in a skirt with Chinese grandmas staring “WTF?”

Venky running through Chinatown in a skirt
Venky running through Chinatown in a skirt

2. Venky is from aamchi Mumbai, and grew up in Matunga near the train station.

3. Venky’s favourite position is “lady on top”.

4. Venky’s joint (yes, you read that right) in the movie was more acrid than a real joint, because it was simply paper rolled up, and man, is burnt paper acrid! (Venky will take a real joint any day.)

5. Venky started the shoot in the gritty part of Mission District in downtown SFO by praying to Lord Ganpati in a mural, with a Mariachi singer doing the Bhajans!

Venky praying to Lord Ganpati
Venky praying to Lord Ganpati

6. Venky’s parents still speak in Tamil at home, well, actually they speak Tindi and Hamil, which is Tamil mixed with Hindi 🙂

7. Venky is so into software coding that he even dreams in C++ code.

8. Venky has a hobby of collecting random baubles from his life in a box – like the first toffee wrapper a girl gave him in kindergarten, his high school girlfriend’s hair clip, a button that pops out from his fat boss’ shirt… you get the idea.

9. Venky was really sleeping in a shot in the movie, after 30 hours of non-stop shooting.

Venky actually asleep in a shot
Venky actually asleep in a shot

10. Venky was blessed at the US Premiere, with the Theater Marquee reading JAI HO “Hola Venky!”

JAI HO Hola Venky
JAI HO Hola Venky