Express News Service
Film content around marijuana usually turns preachy or belongs to the dark humour category. But debutant director Sugan Jay’s SonyLIV series Accidental Farmer and Co, about a person who accidentally finds marijuana in his land, is an all-out comedy. The series is set in a fictional village called Manmadha Gramam, and the weed sold by the hero goes by the name, Rathi. As you can imagine, director Sugan Jay comes from a family of farmers and is fascinated about agriculture. “I grew up around farms. This series is my attempt at recreating the life of characters I saw while I was a kid,” he says, and clarifies with a laugh that they, of course, were growing legal crops.
Vaibhav, on the other hand, chose this series as it takes him back to the villages after Chennai 600028 II. “The character Chella (protagonist) is innocent and casual, just like my real-life persona. I thought that the writing of Sugan was extremely rooted,” he says. Vaibhav’s Chella ends up accidentally cultivating marijuana on a land he inherits from his grandfather, and the simpleton that he is, sells it as a medicinal herb. For lack of references to base such a unique character on, Vaibhav stuck to following the instructions of the director. “Sugan was particular about what he wanted. Of course, there were some improvisations too. Badava Gopi and I would brainstorm ideas in between to enhance the impact of each scene.”
Actor Badava Gopi, well-known for his improv skills, plays a newly appointed postman. “After looking at the dialogues Sugan wrote for my character, I would improvise and come up with funny dialogues. Sugan would laugh at all my jokes, and then kindly say, ‘Illa sir,
venaam.’ In contrast to my usually extroverted characters, my performance in this series is rather subtle.” In handling a subject like weed use, it’s important not to be seen as romanticising it. Sugan states that Accidental Farmer and Co is so much more than a series about weed. “We use it just as a MacGuffin. The storyline does not get affected even if you replace it with some other illegal substance. “We have underplayed the use of trippy scenes, for instance. The idea was not to hype the effects of smoking weed.”
While many of his fellow actors have already dived deep into the OTT space, this series only marks Vaibhav’s second OTT outing after Live Telecast (2021). Vaibhav says, “Any medium is good. If we didn’t have OTT during the lockdown, we might have been completely deprived of entertainment. I think projects choose their medium of release.”
Sugan is grateful for the opportunities that OTTs offer. “The corporate process, on the whole, is much easier to deal with. I just had to give them the script with various modifications. I think this content and genre is better suited for the OTT space, and I found there to be no obstacles for my creativity,” he says.
For Badava Gopi, OTT opportunities are add-ons to his journey. “As I’m primarily a stand-up comedian, I don’t rely upon films and series for my livelihood. So, I have the privilege to choose what interests me and helps me grow as an actor.”
In the era of loud entertainers, Sugan’s Accidental Farmer and Co is a simple story about the innocent people of a small village. Sugan shares this is a conscious choice aimed at valourising the innocence of villagers. “You cannot find their innocence anywhere else. While we have all been taught to be calculative all the time, they are people who don’t worry about risks and consequences.” And that’s perhaps how the filmmaker himself dared take on a difficult subject like marijuana for his debut.
Source: The New Indian Express