When I saw Ron Perlman in costume on the sets, my mind was blown: Indian-American director Naveen Chathapuram

Warm, spirited and driven - these words accurately describe Indian-American filmmaker Naveen Chathapuram, who is all set to make his directorial debut with The Last Victim that stars Ali Larter, Ron Perlman and Ralph Ineson. The Chicago-based Hollywood producer-turned-director has worked on several projects including the sitcom Brown Nation, animated film Night of the Living Dead: Origins, Haunted and Ca$h, which featured Chris Hemsworth and Sean Bean in the lead.

The Last Victim, a neo-western thriller, is set in the harsh landscape of the American Southwest and revolves around a group of modern-day outlaws who are dealing with the fallout of a crime gone wrong. When anthropologist Susan Orden and her husband Richard stumble into the lives of the gang, they are drawn into a chain of vengeance where morality becomes dubious.

The filmmaker shared his experiences of working on his debut directorial, his thoughts on the OTT vs theatre debate and more, over a zoom call with OTTPlay.

How did you navigate the process of directing and releasing your first film in the midst of a pandemic?

We actually finished principal photography before the pandemic. However, there were uncertainties early on in the pandemic. I had plans to go to New York and LA but there was a lockdown and I couldn’t move. So that’s when you begin to look for solutions, options and opportunities.

What we were able to do was rely on technology. One of my friends, who is a director in LA, introduced me to a software which has the capabilities of a Zoom call but you can also stream videos directly on the software. I was in Chicago and my editor was in New York, but this software enabled us to edit the movie without latency. I never thought I’d be able to do that.

A similar thing happened with the sound team. This is the first time that I have stayed in Chicago throughout the post-production, but my team was scattered all across the nation. From that standpoint, it was really exciting!

Did the uncertainty of the whole situation, especially in your directorial debut, affect you?

It was challenging, especially for the first two or three months, which were really uncertain. We did not know if we would be able to finish the film till the pandemic passes and we did not know how long it would go on for. It was scary at that moment, but at some point you just roll up your sleeves and say, ‘What can we do? What is in our control?’. And then you lean on technology and work from there.

What should audiences expect when they watch The Last Victim?

The Last Victim is a fun thriller. The film has four storylines - we have an antihero who is on a mission, a sheriff who is on the heels of the crime the antihero has created, a couple who gets caught up in the chain reaction that the antagonist has started and these brothers who get pulled into it all.

I would say that the film is an homage to a lot of the thrillers I grew up with in the ‘70s and ‘80s, but it is very modern and fresh. The film is very broad when it starts, but as it goes on it begins narrowing, the plot starts tightening and the steam starts building up. Towards the end, The Last Victim is an unstoppable train that’s coming right at you.

I’m hoping that the film makes for a great ride for the audience. It’s very rich in its setting- based in the American Southwest. I love the romantic Southwest with its beautiful landscapes, but against that there’s this element of violence in The Last Victim. The film never takes itself too seriously though. It’s laden with wry humour, so even in the darkest moments of the film, one can expect some tongue-in-cheek humour.

What were some of the unexpected things that happened while shooting?

When we planned our shoot, it was planned for the summer. So the days were longer and we were supposed to have 12 hours of sun. I was not aware of the Canadian winter. In the US, we slowly fade into winter from our summer, but in Canada it’s just a plunge. The days got shorter - we only had nine hours of sun with sub-zero temperatures.

In the wilderness, the only heating system is makeshift tents with propane heaters. So, for you to get heat, you will have to go into the tent and huddle. One day, it took us three hours to warm our lens that had frozen to make it work.

When you are filming, you believe that the only thing that has to be done is for actors to get in front of the camera and as long as they are performing and I’m capturing it, we’re all good. But this was a completely different challenge. There were some days where I had to make decisions when I couldn’t feel any part of my body except my face, everything else is basically frozen. In a situation like this, all you’re thinking about is that one shot. You’re hoping you have that one shot and then you move on. Because of these hurdles, we had to cut down the shooting days from 30 days to 18 days.

The film stars Larter, Perlman and Ineson. What did they bring to the table?

To have a calibre of actors like Larter, Perlman and Ineson and even the younger actors like Kyle Schmid, Tahmoh Penikett, and Dakota Daulby, was a great pleasure. Film is a collaborative art. You have a vision as a filmmaker but when you go with that vision to the actors and crew members, they bring their own interpretation of the work to the table. There is a lot of trust in this process. The actors trust the director a lot to make sure that the macro-storytelling is intact. At the same time, the director trusts the actors to bring life into the character and bring those micro-moments that give life to the movie.

For me, the second I saw Perlman in the costume walking out on the set, my mind was blown. He had literally just walked off the pages into real life and we were going to capture it! The same thing happened with Ralph Ineson-  when he came in with his outfit and cowboy hat on for the first time, it was surreal.

When should audiences gear up for The Last Victim’s release?

I think it will be a late summer/early fall release. July to October is probably the window for a worldwide release. Like anybody else, I have dreams of screening my film on a big screen.

But with the pandemic, that’s one of the things we have to pivot from. There’s still a possibility of a theatrical release in the US though because our theatres are slowly opening up. We are also considering a limited theatre release with pay-per-view availability on the same day. Maybe it will be a worldwide OTT release like The White Tiger on a big streaming service like Netflix, Amazon Prime or Hulu. Whatever the case, I want this film to be available for the Indian diaspora worldwide.

OTT is the way to go now though. I think OTT platforms give an opportunity to people from different corners of the world to watch the same film. The globe has opened up and the living room is now your theatre!

As an Indian-American filmmaker, how do you feel about the diversity that has reflected in this year’s Oscar nominations?

I think it’s exciting times now. Personally, I feel like diversity is opening up barriers and letting people tell their stories and everybody gets to take part in watching that storytelling. Globally, things are opening up and borders are being blurred. People are able to exchange cultures and ideas in storytelling.

There are some great talents that are coming out like Chloe Zhao. I loved her film The Rider and she’s an absolutely great talent. There’s also Minari, which is an American film shot in a foreign language and that has never happened in the past. I’m really excited about these developments and about people being able to tell their stories.

Do you have any plans to direct a movie in a specific genre or any actor that you’re looking forward to working with?

What I look forward to is exciting scripts as good stories, irrespective of their genre, excite me. What happens is, you create an open palette and you go in with no judgments. You then pick up a script and read it and if there’s something in it that moves you, grabs you and says this needs to be made, then that’s what I usually rely on.

Having said that, Ash has written some great scripts. There are about four to five scripts he has written and a couple that I’m really excited about. He’s exploring different genres as well. Ash and I share a great wavelength so I’m looking forward to that.

On the other hand, I’m also reading a lot of other scripts. From a long-runs standpoint, I want to work on things that make me want to sink my teeth into but also those stories that could have a global impact.

Tell us about your journey of being an Indian-American in Chicago to being a director?

I would say that I’ve been fortunate through my career. You can call them coincidences or experiences, but I ran into the right kind of projects and the right kind of people. I was able to learn a lot through them. I’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of great people from all over the world and have had a countless amount of mentors who I have learned from in that process.

From Chicago, I ended up making an independent film first with this director who came from India with an Indian film which was India’s entry to the Oscars. But after that, I cut my teeth in independent films, worked in music videos and TV commercials between films.

My first experience of doing a film from start to finish, which took about five years, was Ca$h which starred Sean Bean. We were also able to discover Chris Hemsworth in that film. This project was almost like a film school outside of film school. The director of this film, Stephen Milburn Anderson almost became my directorial mentor. Though I was the producer, I asked him questions throughout the process like, ‘How did you make that decision in the script?’. When we were shooting scenes, I’d see him make certain choices and I would wonder what led him to make that choice.

Is there a possibility of audiences seeing you involved in projects from India anytime soon?

I love the Indian film industry - Marathi, Gujarati, Malayalam and Tamil films have some great stories coming out. A film like Jallikattu from Kerala was India’s official Oscar entry for this year and I’m excited about stories like that coming out of India that are playing at a global stage.

If I come across a script that captivates me, I’d love to work in the Indian film industry and the great talent that it has to offer.