This multi-faceted Cinema Praanthan talks about his debut directorial venture IDI

This multi-faceted Cinema Praanthan talks about his debut directorial venture IDI

  • 22 Aug 2016
  • Sunaya
  • Features

Hitting it off with Sajid Yahiya

Clad in his Phantom tee shirt and joggers, he perches himself on a couch and throws jabs, hooks and uppercuts into the air much like the protagonist in his directorial debut IDI. Swelling music, shot after shot of intriguing events and dialogues that pack a punch, the trailer for IDI-Inspector Dawood Ibrahim, is an eventful affair. “We have made IDI in such a way that it is one event after another, keeping the audience on their toes” Sajid explains with excitement. The word movies is always a thrill to talk about for this self confessed Cinema Praanthan. His long locks and his quirky mustache will have you assured of a bit of eccentricity in this otherwise soft spoken guy.

Sajid has travelled long and hard to get his directorial debut and he says, “The only thing my cousin Arouz Irfan and I had decided years ago was to end up in cinema, one way or the other”. They are realizing that promise with IDI or Inspector Davood Ibrahim. Cowritten by Sajid and Arouz Irfan, this movie stars Jayasurya who took a big leap of faith by supporting a first time director and even helped in finding financial backing as a lot of industry majors were apprehensive to trust a rookie. Sajid launches into the tale of his directorial debut that is full of interesting characters, events and locations that keeps the audience on their toes. IDI will be literally his debut punchline.

The Backstory

Sajid Yahiya and his cousin brother Arouz Irfan hails from a conservative family and lived in the same compound. Just like most of us, these boys went through phases of interests, from wanting to become bikers to entering the film field. The last dream was realized at that age when dreams become career choices. For them it didn’t matter whether they were on camera or behind the camera, and somehow both of their dreams came true.

The Hero’s Journey

Sajid is an IT engineering graduate from Hindustan College, Coimbatore. After a brief stint working there, he returned to Kochi and started webdinkan.com that provided IT solutions of various kinds. Cinema Praanthan was a product of WebDinkan that was close to Sajid’s real interests and it helped him to create contacts within the industry. During this time Najeem Koya, a relative who wrote the story for movies like Apoorvaragam, got Sajid the chance to act in the movie ‘Collector’. He gradually started getting small roles because of these connections and along the way he met Sandra Thomas with whom he did many events, advertisements and the movie Friday. “On one of our work related long trips, I told Sandra the premise for IDI and she encouraged me to make this movie a reality and now here we are!” Sajid says with a hint of pride and something between relief and excitement.

The Inspiration

For anyone following an alternate career path, there is sure to be one person in their field of choice that provides inspiration again and again. For Sajid it is Lijo Jose Pallissery and he goes on to say, “ He is one director whose works I admire a lot. He has taken risks after risks in his movies. With the array of actors he had at his disposal for Double Barrel, he could have made a run of the mill Masala movie. But he attempted to do something original and to challenge himself. It doesn’t matter whether it was a crowd pleaser; he is paving ways for more movie enthusiasts like me to look beyond the norms when creating movies”.

The Pillars of Support

“IDI was created with the constant support of many people” Sajid was quick to say. Sandra Thomas and Vijay Babu gave Sajid generous moral support to pursue his passion for movies. Rahul Raj, the music director for IDI was another cheerleader. He even got Sajid’s mother to sing a beautiful and emotional song in the movie. Jayasurya who plays the title character Inspector Davood Ibrahim, is someone whose trust that keeps Sajid going. “He is an actor that has won State award and the fact that he has been with us through all stages of the movie and even stepped in when we were facing our biggest challenge of finding financial backing is something that amazes me. He is showing so much faith in me and Arouz, who are rookies, and that makes us want to show him and everyone else who supported us to see that their faith was well placed.”

The Striking Factor

The trailer for IDI is a 2 minute and 14 second long explosion of events that leave us wondering what is happening and what to expect. This is exactly what they wanted to portray with this movie. “Everyone needs a landing movie and IDI is Arouz’s and mine.” After the trailer, many wondered whether it was a spoof, but it is far from that. It is a movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously and the creators hope that will be major reason why people would love the movie.

 

QUICKIES

  • What are you listening to right now?

          IDI Soundtrack on repeat.

  • Who is your style icon?

          Mammookka

  • A Band you’d like to see live

          Coldplay.

  • A Quote that keeps you going

          Not a quote, but always the voice of my father telling me to never give up. 

  • Something that not many people know about you

          I used to do bike stunts but had to stop after getting injured and getting 7 stitches on my head. 

  • A movie that you’d have loved to have worked on

          In To The Wild (2007).

 

Words            : Fathima Abdul Kader      

Photos           : Jinson Abraham

Stylist            : Sooraj Suresh

Makeup          : Tony Michael

Costumes       : SQ, Panampilly Nagar

Image retouch : Vipin Vishwanath

Location          : Jey Motors- Vespa-Aprilia-Moto Guzzi, Palarivattom

 

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