Interview: Bipin Patel
By: Ashika Sengupta
From convenience store and gas station owner to film producer, Bipin Patel has diversified his life in the most interesting of ways, despite his formal education and training as a textile engineer.
The President and CEO of Speedy Mart Food Stores and Chairman of Indus American Bank has added his own Akshar Media Production to his conglomerate of firms.
While he has juggled many responsibilities in the tri-state area while making a solid living in New Jersey, Patel is most excited about making his Bollywood debut this weekend as a film producer, as his first venture, The Hangman, opens on January 29th.
For Patel, it all boils down to fulfilling a childhood dream.
“It was a childhood dream to do something in Bollywood,” he told reporters. “I had no connection in Bollywood before, but I was looking out for some projects. I had started my first film with American Desi‘s director, but something went kaput. Then I finally came across The Hangman, and I loved the story.”
Patel said what made the story of The Hangman so attractive to him was its mass appeal, and he hopes audiences will find the same redeeming values in the film as he did.
“The story of The Hangman revolves around a guilt-ridden executioner who struggles between the mandates of his profession and his desire to create a better life for his son. But a series of ill-fated events results in a startling tragedy,” Patel describes. “It’s a simple story with a universal theme.”
It is that universal theme that initially drew Patel to the film, but it was the added layer of promoting Indian culture while working with one of Bollywood’s biggest names that made The Hangman a perfect film to debut in his home country.
“The story of The Hangman is bold and rich with Indian culture, and at the same time maintains a worldwide appeal,” Patel explained to reporters. “I want to produce movies which are different, and The Hangman is an amazing dramatic film with such great actors. I’m so fortunate to have internationally acclaimed actor Om Puri in my film.”
With The Hangman, Patel definitely made a concerted effort to maintain the film’s broad appeal by filming it entirely in English, despite its box office premiere taking place in India. Indeed, Patel does not feel an English film opening in India will be restrictive — quite the opposite, with planned openings of The Hangman for North American audiences in time for Super Bowl weekend, the Indo-American filmmaker says he is not worried about filling seats with butts.
“This film hasn’t been made only for Indian cinema but for audiences from all around the world,” he said. “We do plan to release it in Hindi the following week and a release in [the] U.S.A. and Canada in February.”
While he plans to continue his film-making career here in the United States, what with a planned comedy venture about Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to be filmed stateside, Patel is just happy to be finally fulfilling his dream in having created something for Bollywood audiences.
The Hangman opens in India on January 29th, with a North American release scheduled for February 5th. The film stars Puri, Gulshan Grover, Shreyas Talpade and Tam Alter, and is directed by Vishal Bhandari.
