Nitinn R Miranni portrays the character of Aryan in The Elephant in The Room. The film is being produced by Aartie Miranni’s Alter Ego Production.
“Well, since Aarti and I came up with the concept / story idea of the film. Given my background as a comedian, there was always space for me to play one of the characters as the film is about friends getting together and how an innocent get together becomes a night of mayhem for all of them. Also having your wife as a producer means I listen to whatever she says,” he says.
Luckily the character of Aryan is close to who Nitinn is in terms of his approach towards situations in life. “Aryan is a fun loving and easy going guy who has no qualms about letting his better half take the lead on things. Also most of our characters are good friends in real life and we already have a good tuning. Having said that, we definitely had a good share of workshops and readings to make sure that all that is translated onto screen,” he adds.
The metaphorical elephant in the room represents an obvious problem or difficult situation that people do not want to talk about. “Our film is a light take on a heavy topic. Sometimes even amongst your close ones we find it hard to address the elephant in the room with many things. It is actually a common practice in India also and I feel it eventually leads to the emotions coming out the wrong way. We always feel that sometimes ‘Someone’ would make the first move and say what needs to be said so the others can join in. So in this case our ‘Hero’, our Gannu (played by) takes the lead and says what needs to be said. As the tagline of the film says “It takes an elephant to come into the room to bring out the elephant in the room”,” he explains.
For Nitinn, the film has many amazing moments thanks to the amazing cast and crew. “But having our hero Gannu on set and to not have a miracle is impossible. So yes, we did have a moment where we were seriously stuck in a situation but then our Gannu took the lead almost saying ‘Don’t stress, here’s the solution’,” he smiles.
How was your working experience with Aartie? “For someone who comes from a corporate background I was very impressed with her focus and ability to learn and execute at an amazing speed. It was also nice to work with someone who was willing to experiment and make sure that we do what is best for the final product. Honestly I’m so proud of my wife to have pulled this through and with such grace & professionalism,” he says.
Sharing about his relationship with the elephant god Ganesha, he adds, “Aartie and I have an immense and unexplainable love for Lord Ganesha. As a matter of fact it is easily one of our favourite celebrations. It brings us so much calm to bring Gannu home and we spend weeks deciding on every small detail and creatively deciding how and what his home would look like. There is a certain calm that I feel around him and it’s so unique that for me Gannu is like a big brother who is also a child as well as a father. I feel so much gratitude when I look into his eyes knowing that he is always there to protect us.”
The short film will stream on Humaramovie YouTube Channel from 19th September. It is directed by Krishan Hooda, Presented by Alter Ego Entertainment, produced by Aartie Miranni & Prakash Moolani and Dialogue and Screenplay is by Neeltarni Pratap. The Elephant In The Room star cast includes Daisy Shah, Viraf Patell, Nitinn R Miranni, Salonie Patel, Pratiksha Sen, Akanksha Pandey and Sankalp Joshi.
