Danish Sait is all geared up for the release of his upcoming film One Cut Two Cut on Amazon Prime Video. The actor plays an Arts and Crafts teacher in the comedy-adventure film and finds himself caught in an unlikely hostage situating at his school. The trailer has already created quite a buzz with the fun that it promises and the eclectic ensemble cast that is sure to blow us away. The film also stars with Prakash Belavadi, Samyukta Hornad, Vineeth Kumar, and Sampath Maitreya and is directed by Vamsidhar Bhogaraju.
In an exclusive interview with PeepingMoon.com, Danish spoke about his hilarious accent in the film, his character, having back-to-back releases on OTT and getting inspired from real life people for his roles and more.
Excerpts from the interview:
@PRK_Productions @PRKAudio @ashwinipuneet @VamBho #PrakashBelawadi @samyuktahornad #VineethBeepKumar #SampathMaitreya @RoopaRayappa #ManoshSputniqueSengupta @sahitanand @DoCreativeLabs @NakulAbhyankar
— Danish Sait (@DanishSait) January 27, 2022
Your antics as Gopi is the highlight of One Cut Two Cut trailer, how did you embark on such an accent with the over-emphasis of ‘an’ in it?
I’ll tell you it will be very wrong for me to take the credit for what the trailer looks like and the pitch or the tenor of the film is that is resonating with the audience because there are three stakeholders who made this possible- the director Vamsi, the production house and Amazon Prime Video. Thanks to these three entities for coming together and putting up a trailer that is so kick-ass. In terms of me being a part of the film, the journey started out two years ago when Vamsi and I were working very closely during the lockdown when those videos were going all out and I was with IPL and I’ve always been very good with accents and voices and so forth and Vamsi is a friend, he is like family, so when we used to hang out I will do voices and there was this video that we put out saying, “Hi I am Gopi I want to get married. I’m looking for an able partner and enjoy the joys of life and I would be fully committed and needs commitment from you. If you like me please send me an email to [email protected],” and we had around 500-700 emails in about 5-6 hours and we thought that there is potential in the character. Ever since I was a child, I’ve always loved to watch people and observing traits and voices and accents and mannerisms of people. So I’m sure Gopi comes from my childhood but I’m not sure whom did I see and what led me to this but many years later, playing an Arts teacher middle of a hostage situation and Gopi being there, because we knew he is an affable guy but an affable guy in a very uncomfortable situation and we managed to do that, so I am very very eager and excited for people to watch this film which has been made with so much heart and soul.
The adventure-comedy-thriller is less explored in India, but looks like your film is going to stand out in this genre, your thoughts on it?
It is a difficult genre and we hope we’ve done justice to the genre which I’m glad you’ve got spot on which means we’ve kind of managed to get the content, the trailer of the film right to what we want to present. I wouldn’t be able to comment why people don’t do it and people have their own thought process and go with the flow. It took us a few years to figure out if we could do something like this, but it was great fun to work on this, it was fabulous to work on One Cut Two Cut because we knew that on one side we need to get the stakes higher and on another we had to keep the comedy intact as well so it was quite challenging to put this script together and now I’m just hoping that people watch it and kind of enjoy the ride with us because we’ve also managed to talk about government schools, the condition, what these four activists want, how they individually have their own desires, you know getting four people on one page is difficult then there is a guy called Gopi who is so nice, he wants everyone to be together, wants to save the children. Whether he saves the children or he doesn’t, there is a romantic angle so there is a lot of things happening so I hope people enjoy it.
Usually Art and craft teachers are lesser mortals in school and rarely depicted on screen, how did you zero on your character’s teaching expertise?
You know in this film, Gopi is front and centre of everything even though he is an Arts and Crafts teacher and this comes from two places- the first one is my personal hero was the Principal of my school, he used to teach us Civics and take these personality classes for us, incredible human being, he was my first hero so that’s one. And second teacher being the front and centre of someone’s life or just front and centre of a situation easily relate to; in terms of Arts and Crafts of it, and in my school there were multiple teachers for different subjects but there was on particular gentleman who walked in selling these Rs 10-20 art kits with coloured papers and scissors, he was a celebrity and we looked forward to his coming, because we would get a free period and wouldn’t have to study anything and we were all so enthralled and fascinated by sheer origami skill of this person. Now we have internet and all but back in the day, he was just selling these things to children, engaging them and making them believe that they can also do it too. So personally for me I don’t think Arts and Crafts teachers are last and least important one and since I am also from the creative field so we were in no two minds that it should be an Arts and Crafts teacher.
An romance with an Gopi :) https://t.co/kp1gYhPEGH #YaavaSwargadinda
@Benny_Dayal @DanishSait @VamBho @ashwinipuneet @NakulAbhyankar @PRK_Productions @PrimeVideoIN @PRKAudio #onecuttwocutonprime pic.twitter.com/ADSRKRDdWq
— Samyukta Hornad (@samyuktahornad) January 31, 2022
How was it sharing screen space with Prakash Belavadi, Samyukta Hornad, Vineeth Kumar, and Sampath Maitreya?
It was fantastic because Prakash Sir is a friend and I look up to him and I feel he is incredibly talented and probably a few years from now when I will be in 60s and a grandfather like he is, I would like to be like him, working with young people and still being the cool cat on sets that’s how he is. I have done two projects back-to-back and I really enjoy working with him and Samyukta and I have been friends for a very long time. Somehow, when you want to become and actor in Karnataka and when you start meeting people, Samyukta becomes one of those people whom you meet, she is such an affable, wonderful and warm person. She is fantastic to work with. Vineeth is an extremely talented boy and Sampath Sir is one of the most well-read people I have come across. When you have somebody with so much experience, the people around you start believing in the idea a lot more so it makes a big difference.
Extremely proud of this product that we’ve worked on! Thanks @RCBTweets @Ajith_tweets @GauravVaz for the incredible work. Definitely among the coolest things I’ve done in my career! The RCB podcast https://t.co/Y9AXrhNkKY
— Danish Sait (@DanishSait) February 1, 2022
You are riding high with two back-to-back releases with Humble Politiciann Nograj and now One Cut Two Cut. What next are you coming out with?
Next you’re not gonna see anything but hear it. I have a podcast coming out related to cricket and it’s called RCB podcast and it’s got some incredible stories from champions like Virat and Maxwell and others. I also do IPL so you’ll see me there and let’s see what comes to me after that.
