Local Kung Fu 2 seeks crowd funding for completion, aims to release in April

Guwahati : Bonzo's back! Hobo de...'After the grand success of Assamese cult classic Local Kung Fu, the makers are ready with the sequel of the film Local Kung Fu 2.

 

Local Kung Fu, released in 2013, became a pop culture phenomenon in the Northeast as the dialoguesstill find their way into regular conversations. 

 

 

'A hotel boy in Bamunimaidam told me once that even people in his village in Bihar have seen it,' Bibhash Sinha said.

 

With Local Kung Fu 2, director Kenny Basumatary has adapted William Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors for the silver screen. To be released in April this year, the film has been shot in both Assamese and Hindi and is currently in the final stages of post-production. Interestingly, Local Kung Fu 2 will be the first ever sequel in Assamese cinema. 

 

To fund the post-production, Kenny Basumatary has now started a crowd-funding campaign. 

 

It costs a lot of money to properly make and release a film, and none of us is super-rich, which is why we are looking for funds,â€Â Utkal Hazowary who played Dulu da in the first Local Kung Fu said.

 

The team has finished shooting of the film with a keen eye on costs. 

 

'Like the first film under the banner, this will also be a DIY (do-it-yourself) film, with all the talent-based work been taken care of within the team itself. Because of that the film could be completed at a relatively low cost. Even the full-frame camera came to us without any cost. Now, having finished shooting its sequel within a shoe-string budget, we are now depending on the crowd-funding campaign for the successful release of the film,' producer Durlov Baruah said.

 

The campaign has picked pace and already collected Rs 2.86 lakhs from 139 backers.  

 

Interestingly, if the target of Rs 8 lakh isn't achieved, all the money will be returned to the backers.

 

If that happens, we will be back at the same place as now, and we'll probably have to postpone the release to August-September at least, director Kenny Basumatary said.* 

 

Crowd funding is relatively new in India. The basic concept is to collect small amounts of money from many people instead of huge amounts from a few people. For example, if 800 people contribute Rs 1,000 each, then the Rs 8 lakh target is met. Depending on the amount contributed (anything from Rs 

500 to Rs 1 lakh), the filmmakers will offer various rewards and incentiveswhich includes the film’s songs, posters, behind the scenes footage, invitation to the premiere, name in the end credits etc. * 

 

Noted filmmaker Bhaskar Hazarika's Kothanodi was an instance of a successful crowdfunding campaign which raised Rs 21 lakhs.

 

Commenting on Local Kung Fu, noted actor Adil Hussain said that he saw the film and ended up laughing all night. 

 

Singer and actor Meiyang Chang described the film as 'absolute fun.' 

 

Kenny has been working as an actor and director in Mumbai for several years. He has acted in Bollywood movie Mary Kom and Shanghai, and will soon be seen in Tigmanshu Dhuli's next film.  

 

 

He has directed two short films for Edumedia's School cinema program, one of which has won awards at two international children's film festivals in the US. He has also directed episodes of various TV shows like Confessions of an Indian Teenager, Sun Yaar Try Maar and Saavdhan India.

 

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)