Kinshuk Sen, son of Delhi-based band Euphoria’s frontman Palash Sen, is all set to make his Hollywood debut with the film In A Silent Way. Named after the famous Miles Davis song, the film follows the life of four jazz musicians in Los Angeles, and their efforts to make it in an industry that has no room for them.
“The entire experience was one of the warmest and most fun experiences of my life. I have always cracked a coconut on the first day of any work project. Not only did the team support me in carrying out the tradition, but they all participated actively in doing so,” he told IANS on working in the Collin Levin film that stars Nicolai Dorian and Kimball Farley.
The 26-year-old recalls going to an audition which “specifically asked for the actor to be able to play the piano at a semi-professional level”. “This was my first official film audition ever. Thankfully, I had prior piano training from a school accredited with Trinity Guildhall,” he says.
“(The) callback was one of the most fun experiences ever. Since they were looking to cast a band of four boys who had great chemistry, there were multiple actors, about four for each part, who were asked to come in, and we were all put in different combinations to audition for the casting director, the director, and the producer. Coincidentally, the first group that went in for the screen test ended up being the four that got cast, including me,” he adds.
After a few meetings with the director, Kinshuk got the role.
“My manager called to say I had bagged the role! I couldn’t have been happier. Not only because it was my first movie project, but also because as an Indian actor, you don’t get too many parts written for you that are not stereotypical. This part was written with no ethnicity in mind, making it completely devoid of all hang-ups that we sometimes see attached to Indian characters in the West,” he says.
In the film, Kinshuk plays Anderson, a “young jazz pianist from LA” who, along with his bandmates, tries to navigate the world of the music industry, while trying to handle his band leader Jazzen’s “neuroticism and incessant want to be immortalised” as a legend.
“I heavily relied on the director and the script as my basis for my character. Anderson is a sweet, mellow, but very gifted young guy who is trying to impress his more experienced bandmates. He is very ‘by the book’ and doesn’t deal well with Jazzen’s unrealistic demands many times, but desperately wants to be in his cool posse,” says Kinshuk.
Since this was a musical film with an original soundtrack, Kinshuk got to work with Grammy-winning artists and musicians including Bob Reynolds, who taught him “their pieces”, and helped him become more of a “natural as a pianist”.
“He (Anderson) is sort of a combination of Matt Flamhaff’s demeanour from “13 Going On 30,” Sebastian Wilder’s talent from “La La Land,” and has Kabir Dewan’s attitude of “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara” — all mixed and made into a young brown American boy,” he laughs.
The film debuted at the American Film Festival last year alongside films by Oscar-winning directors Spike Lee and the late Orson Welles and is slated to go to a few more film festivals before getting a public release later this year.
“To even be amongst such an amazing group of creators is an honour in itself. Sadly, because of Covid-19, all our release dates got postponed, but I am so glad we are finally getting to showcase this film” says Kinshuk.
Kinshuk also has a new short film coming up on Amazon Prime this year, called “The Book of Martians” and he is set to start work on his second feature film, “Fraud”, from writer Arnold Rudnick. The film will be directed by Rich Thorne. Kinshuk will play the protagonist in this action thriller that is set to film later this year.
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