52 Blue, Neha Dhupia's debut international film, has been selected to open the 17th London Indian Film Festival, with its European premiere at the British Film Institute Southbank on July 9.
Directed by Egyptian filmmaker Ali El Arabi, the film follows Ashish (Yadav Shashidhar), a reclusive young man from a remote island in Kerala whose singular dream is to meet his idol, Lionel Messi, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Adil Hussain plays his strict, protective father, and Dhupia plays his mother, a warm yet quietly fierce force who finally pushes him to step beyond the island. At its heart, the film is about what it costs to dream and what it takes to go after one.
Ahead of the European premiere, Dhupia sat down with THR India to talk about being cast in the film, why it was unlike anything she has done before, and what it took to build a character like this.
On the film’s selection, Dhupia is candid about where she is: "I'm just having a pinch-me moment."
She explains what the opportunity to play such a role was like. "Ali visualised me as a woman from Kerala, completely living this rural life, completely de-glamorised, and had a vision for me that I didn't have for myself," she says. "After all these years, it's so difficult to break that. This is something I've been fighting for for over 20 years, starting from my first film. I always hoped I'd get this chance."
The shoot was, as she recalls, unlike anything she had done before, both physically and creatively. Unlike her previous projects, which were shot in magic light, or daylight, this production required blue light, the narrow window of darkness just before dawn, which meant makeup calls at 1:30am, followed by shoots running through to afternoon. Much of the filming took place on the water, with Dhupia and her co-stars on a small boat while the crew and cameras operated from a distance.
"We would take locations in the backwaters, going there in the dark," she recalls. "Stepping inside those marshy kind of spaces was something I had never done." The final day of the shoot brought the most challenging moment on set; filming on an island in Kochi, when the water level began rising around them. "It kept going up, the crew kept putting down wooden boxes. We got the last shot and then we were all literally evacuated from the island."
Recalling her experience working with Adil Hussain for the first time with this project, she described it as its own education. "He's so easy to work with - he knows it all, but at the same time he's not imposing, he gives you the option. It was like going back to school and getting paid for it," Dhupia recalls.
Hussain, she says, was insistent that she approach the character entirely on her own terms, never mirroring his choices, encouraging her to find her character the way she would. "I'm like, 'Your approach is so different from the way I would look at my character and he's like, never, ever do that. Don't do it because I'm doing it a certain way."
Dhupia, who has not yet seen the finished film, confirms another project with Netflix in the pipeline, though she says she'll reveal more about it closer to its release. For now, she's focused on the premiere and is keen to see how audiences will receive 52 Blue. "You're the first person I'm talking to about the film," she says, "And I'm excited!"
52 Blue has its European premiere at BFI Southbank, London on July 9, and screens at Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham on July 10, as part of the 17th London Indian Film Festival.