Pyre director Vinod Kapri on making film with non-actors: 'To get through established actors is difficult'

As Pyre premières at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, director Vinod Kapri on how he brought the story of loneliness to the big screen

When journalist-turned-director Vinod Kapri had met farmer Padam Singh and his on-screen wife Heera Devi during his trip to Uttarakhand in 2017, he hadn’t quite imagined that he could tell a story of love and loneliness through their performances. But today, Singh, 80, and Devi, 70, are the unusual leads of the director’s next, Pyre. Revolving around an elderly couple’s challenging life in the remote mountains of Uttarakhand, Pyre premièred at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival on November 19.  

“My team and I were nervous when we attended the film festival because the film is about a remote village in Uttarakhand and stars non-actors. But the moment the last title credit rolled, the response was incredible. People had tears in their eyes; some kept talking to us and others wanted to have a conversation with Amma and Bubu [Singh and Devi],” says the proud director.  

Pyre is inspired by the true story of an elderly duo in Munsiyari village, where they are among the few living in the deserted village as many inhabitants have migrated. It’s their loneliness that caught Kapri’s attention. “Bubu told me that they are awaiting death as there are only a few people left in the village. Bubu’s wish was to die before his wife [not Devi] did because he couldn’t live without her; his wife had the same wish. I felt it was beautiful how each was wanting to die before the other. While they await the pyre, the love between them is the crux of the story,” says the director, who previously helmed Pihu (2016) and 1232 Kms (2021).
Quiz Kapri why he chose to cast the senior actors instead of stars, and he reasons, “To get through established actors and get them to do my kind of film is difficult. I travelled to many Uttarakhand villages looking for old, unknown people. What actors Padam Singh and Heera Devi have done is incredible.”

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