Mumbai, 20 Oct

Actors Ayushmann Khurrana and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who have teamed up for the first time on their upcoming movie, ‘Thamma’, believe it's the right time to showcase Indian folk stories to the world.

The two actors said they grew up with the stories of Vikram and Betaal, and exploring something similar in the movie felt exciting.

‘Thamma’ follows Khurrana's Alok, a Delhi-based journalist, who accidentally stumbles upon a different world of vampires after meeting the mysterious Tadaka, played by Rashmika Mandanna, and a terrifying vampire played by Siddiqui.

“This is a very good trend that has come to our country, wherein we are going within our culture, language, etc. We are seeing our culture more. Films are being made around it, we are getting more 'desi', and people can relate more to it.

"People want to know about India because of this. The more local we go, the closer we get to the culture, and the more global acceptance we get as they also get intrigued about stories coming from India. So, I think that's a very welcome change,” Khurrana told PTI in an interview.

The actor said there was a time when filmmakers aspired to shoot in foreign locations, but that's not the case anymore.

"The biggest aspiration is how close we are to our country and our culture, and that's beautiful for Indian cinema. ‘Thamma’ is also a chapter of that, which is taking the Maddock horror comedy universe forward,” he said.

Siddiqui said stories from folk tradition help promote Indian culture worldwide.

“The more local it is, the more global it is. There are so many thousands of stories, even if we make two to four films a year, we will still have more stories to be told. We ourselves have heard some stories from our grandparents, so there are so many stories waiting to be told,” the actor said.

‘Thamma’ is the latest film in the horror-comedy universe, which began with 2018's ‘Stree’, starring Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor. Its success spawned titles such as ‘Roohi’, ‘Bhediya’ and ‘Munjya’.

The films in this franchise are produced by Dinesh Vijan’s Maddock Films.

Khurrana said he has been a “big fan” of the Maddock horror-comedy universe and was looking forward to joining his brother Aparshakti Khurrana, and actor friends like Rajkummar Rao, Abhishek Banerjee, all of whom are part of the ‘Stree’ franchise, and Varun Dhawan, who was seen in ‘Bhediya’.

He feels glad that his wish came true with the soon-to-released film, ‘Thamma’, helmed by Aditya Sarpotdar of ‘Munjya’ fame.

"Organically, I had a very good camaraderie with all of them (his brother and other actors). And Dinoo (Dinesh Vijan, producer) is a very good friend of mine; we've done 'Bala' together. Whenever Dinu thinks of doing something quirky or different, I think he tells me his stories many times.

"We were talking about 'Thamma' for five years, since the pandemic, when ‘Munjiya’ and ‘Stree 2’ had not been released. So, I was very excited that the stories of Betaal have not been released in India yet, the chapter of Vikram Betaal is unexplored. So, whatever is unexplored, it excites me a lot.”

Interestingly, both Siddiqui and Khurrana had their breakout moment in 2012 with films like ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ and ‘Vicky Donor’ respectively.

“We both were born in 2012,” Siddiqui said.

Khurrana added, “In the same year, he had films like ‘Talaash’ and ‘Kahaani’. Every month we've had a blockbuster.”

Siddiqui, who later went to do mainstream commercial cinema like ‘Kick’, ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’, ‘Raees’, ‘Housefull’, and ‘Heropanti 2’, among others, said it is because of these movies that he was able to attain popularity, and it further helped him to lure the same audience towards his independent films.

“The biggest advantage of big films is that more people see you, so when you do small films and if we get even five per cent of the audience, then that's the biggest benefit. More people started to know about me with these films. The thing is that most of the independent films are released on a smaller level. Well, they get fewer screens, and more people do not come to watch it.”

Also starring Paresh Rawal, Faisal Malik of ‘Panchayat’ fame, ‘Thamma’ is set to arrive in theatres on Deepavali, 21 October.