By Jana Monji, AsAmNews Art & Culture Writer
If I wanted some dirt from the main threesome on working with twin directors, Elan and Rajeev Dassani, I wasn’t going to get it, Sarita Choudhury warned me with a laugh during a group Zoom interview.
In the Blumhouse Production horror film, Evil Eye, Choudhury plays the concerned mother Usha who is living in India but afraid her daughter, Pallavi (Sunita Mani), in the United States has fallen in love with the wrong man–the reincarnation of the mother’s dead abusive lover. Being the sensible modern woman, Pallavi isn’t convinced by her mother’s superstitions. Is it a case of mother knows best or Eastern old ways getting in the way of modern love?
Choudhury hinted that working with twins on a horror film “had a bit of a Shining element.” Joking aside, she found the experience amazing in a very positive way.
Sarita Choudhury in Evil Eye Jasmine Ruparelia (Media House)
Omar Maskati who plays Pallavi’s wealthy boyfriend, Sandeep, chimed in, “If you didn’t hear the note the first time, from one of them, you could just hear it again. It would reinforce what they wanted to do.”
Choudhury added, “By the end, everyone wins because you’re not doing that one-on-one thing.” Luckily, the twins weren’t playing too many tricks on their actors. Although Elan and Rajeev are identical twins, their current different hairstyles makes it easy to identify them. Elan recalled, “In high school or college, he couldn’t get his drivers license, I just went for him. For years, my picture was on his drivers license.” They also admit they’ve flown on each other’s passports, but “not for many years.”
The two also had a party game where if someone asked if they were twins, one would look offended and say, “Oh, so what? You think all Indians look alike?” Eventually, they’d let the person in on their joke. They obviously know how to play a party and that came in handy during the filming of Evil Eye.
Evil Eye was the first time the two had directed as a team and that took some good parenting skills. They tried to be in agreement and run things past each other before they approached the actors and crew so they could have a “united front.” Rajeev said that helped “elevate the material.”
In a separate interview, Choudhury said, “They’re kind of amazing. It actually makes you want to have twin directors all the time. It’s like parents: You can go to one and if you don’t really understand, you go to the other.” Maskati added, “The whole cast felt like a family from the beginning.”
And yet there were times when one could use the other as the bad cop. Rajeev said, “There were times when we needed to move on,” but perhaps the actor wanted to do another shot and Rajeev would say, “I really want to do another take, but Elan…” Isn’t that what parents do as well?
Of course, when they didn’t agree, they would “horse trade”: Give something to get something. Rajeev said, “We respect each other’s taste and talent. We both have strengths and weaknesses.” Even being twins and knowing each other since birth, working on Evil Eye taught them things about each other because it’s only under serious pressure that you discover who you really are. To work together well, you have to learn to step back where you are weak to let your partner take over.
During the shoot, Bernard White, who played Usha’s husband and Pallavi’s father, bought everyone evil eye necklaces. Elan said, “During the shoot, we had necklaces on the whole time.” For Dassani brothers, as with some of the actors, the Evil Eye isn’t just a horror film trope. That’s something they grew up with. Their mother is very superstitious and believes in horoscopes. Although they were both born here and feel they are rational-minded men, they are a bit wary and have even adopted some Western superstitions like number 13. [Spoiler alert] Their mother has seen the film and as the credits rolled, she said, “You see? You’re mom’s always right.”
Besides watching Evil Eye, the Dassani Brothers recommend the following movies to get you in the Halloween mood:
- Alien (1979)
- Aliens (1986)
- The Babadook (2014)
- Get Out (2017)
- Gremlins (1984)
- Hitchcock (especially, “Vertigo”)
- The Invisible Man (2020)
- Let the Right One In (2008)
- The Witch (2015)
To celebrate its four new films on Amazon Prime (Nocturne, Black Box, Evil Eye and The Lie.), there is a Blumhouse Virtual Halloween Experience Friday-Sunday. Visit Eventbrite for more free tickets and more information. Evil Eye drops on Amazon Prime Video on 13 October 2020 along with Nocturne.
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