Born in Kerala and brought up in Kuwait, Vincent Vadakkan’s love for cinema started at a very young age. Today, after being in the advertising industry for over 15 years, Vadakkan is Creative Director at Maitri Advertising Works. He also scripts movies, acts in some and is an accomplished artist whose brush on the canvas has impressed many.
“I did my schooling from The Indian School, Kuwait, and as a kid I was exposed to the world of movies, especially the classic ones. We had holidays on Thursdays and Fridays. Hindi movies were played on our VCR set on Thursdays and Malayalam movies on Friday. This was a regular practice at home and that made my love for cinema grow,” he recalls.
Vadakkan moved to India for his higher studies and graduated from the College of Fine Arts, Chitrakala Parishath.
“During my childhood we used to go for vacations to my ancestral home and places of other relatives, which would mostly be in the outskirts or villages. I would come back after the vacation and sketch people, happenings, and the village scenery from my memory,” says the artist-turned multifaceted creative.
Art seemed like a natural choice for the prodigy but not everyone endorsed his pick as a career option.
“Like any other parents, mine also wanted me to be an engineer. I was always clear that I wanted to do something creative in my life and career. Generally, our parents and the society have a notion that artists or a career in the creative field will never help people survive or pay bills, same was with me. But I chose to opt art for the love I had for the subject,” says Vadakkan.
Cinema Calling
He started his career in advertising and design with Leo Burnett Orchard. He later joined Ogilvy & Mather and a few other agencies. It was during his second stint with Ogilvy & Mather as Creative Director that his calling for cinema came, he reveals.
“My motivation to write a film was that if you can tell a story in 30 seconds for a product in a TV commercial, then you can well write a full-length feature film. One day while working at my desk in Ogilvy, I had a germ of an idea to write a screenplay for a Malayalam feature film; I found a well-bred team to collaborate. We persisted for four years, bringing forth the dream, and finally, my first feature film titled ‘Trance’ was released worldwide on February 20th, 2020,” says Vadakkan.
‘Trance’ starring Fahad Faasil, Nazriya Nazim and Gautham Vasudev Menon was a neo-noir psychological thriller directed by Anwar Rasheed. The movie dealt with the topic of commercialisation of religion and spirituality. In a bold attempt, the movie openly criticised and portrayed the realities behind the spirituality business and miracle healers. Despite the controversies that surrounded the movie, the film had a bumper opening. Reportedly, ‘Trance’ crossed the 20-crore mark at the worldwide box office within the first 11 days of its release.
Vadakkan quit his job in Ogilvy in 2014 to write the script for ‘Trance’ as it was a complicated subject which required more time and energy. The first draft was ready by 2015. But the team kept improvising the script.
Looking back at those days, Vadakkan says, “One of the biggest challenges I faced during that period was taking a plunge to achieve something new. I had a comfortable and well-paid job, quitting it when you have a family to take care of and living on the savings… Or the times when your savings dry up, you have to do random freelancing jobs to pay the bills. It is quite a tough journey.”
He has finished his next project titled ‘Rajni’, for which he has penned dialogues. It’s a bi-lingual film starring Kalidas Jayaram. He is co-writing a dark comedy action movie with Francis Thomas who is the Group Creative Director at Maitri, who has co-written the ‘Ilamai Idho Idho’ segment in the 2020 Tamil anthology ’Putham Pudhu Kaalai’.
Vadakkan wants to write and direct a film in future.
“I have the story and the entire script in my head, I just have to write it down. Realistically speaking, a directorial debut can happen in the next five years,” he says.
Facing the Camera
“Cinema was always part of my life and I wanted to pursue acting. But I wasn’t confident about my looks and body weight,” he says.
During college, Vadakkan joined theatre and performed in plays.
“I did a play titled ‘Weeds’ directed by Abhishek Majumdar. I was very passionate about acting and when I started working, I used to go for rehearsals after work. Playing a character which doesn’t have any of your character traits also gave me an amazing feeling. Theatre has given me the confidence and methods of acting. Acting was always in my cards,” he says.
In 2015, he acted in a short film named ‘The Fish’. He made his film debut with Malayalam movie ‘Ela Veezha Poonchira’.
“My movie debut was an accidental one. The director Shahi Kabir is a friend of mine. He called me over the phone one day to inform me about the movie puja. We spoke for some time and the next day he called me and said that he had put me on loud speaker, so that people can hear my voice. My Malayalam conversations will have a mix of English as well to it. The character who is the Superintendent of Police required it and I did that,” says Vadakkan.
He has also done a role in the movie ‘Rajni’ he has written dialogues for. He is in discussion for his next acting role.
The Artist
Vadakkan is among those who graduated in fine arts who hasn’t lost touch with the first love for the brush on canvas. He wants to hold an exhibition someday. For now, he posts his art work on his Instagram page.
“I like surreal kind of art. My art works have a sense of longing like the characters I write about, most of it comes from an unmet longing of childhood. I like to maintain surrealism in my art,” he says.
Lessons from Advertising
“Advertising gave me exposure to a wider world of artists, directors, and cinematographers, and a close proximity towards cinema. It has taught me that the idea is very important and art and copies are just the tools. I have incorporated the same learning in films as well. If I am telling a story, then it should be completely fresh. Most importantly my job is to be ‘a storyteller’ to sell a feeling so that people can emotionally connect to a brand or a product. What we try to achieve is to entertain our audience, and not flood them with information. And if we’re not entertaining them, then we aren’t doing our jobs well,” Vadakkan says.
Inspiration/s
For Vadakkan, inspiration comes from people around him.
“I am a great observer of people and happen to hear lots of conversations, which I use in my work. My greatest inspirations are Aaron Sorkin, Quentin Tarantino, Wong Kar-Wai. I would go back and revisit their works to inspire me on how to write, where to start, and so on.”
His ‘support system’, reveals the storyteller, is his wife Munna and daughters Niharika and Zarah.
“My wife is an art teacher. She has done Masters in Visual Arts and we met during college days. She is my greatest critique. For the next film I am writing, my daughters are my inspiration. They help me to think and approach certain things or topic from a different angle,” he concludes.
