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Meet the geniuses behind the video Fast and Furious India
IThe Fast and the Furious movie franchise is one of the most successful in the world. The latest film, The Fate of the Furious, or The Fast and the Furious 8, scored the highest grossing opening weekend ever, reportedly crossing the half-a-billion dollar mark worldwide. Closer home, for a tiny fraction of the money it cost to make the movie, a video spoofing the film has been setting its own record. Social media views of the video by the comedic group Jordindian have so far crossed four million within days of its release.
Meet Vineeth “beep” Kumar and Naser Al Azzeh, the hilarious duo behind the video, titled Fast and Furious India, which shows the two narrowing their eyes at each other, ready to race… in a Maruti Zen and an autorickshaw. This race is neither fast nor furious, as their way is blocked by a cow, dancing children, and a policeman.
Kumar is a Banglore-based emcee, a beatboxer, and a TV host. Al Azzeh is a Jordanian national, brought up in India. He is a break dancer and a freelance filmmaker. Together they formed Jordindian in 2016. They tell all to HT City.
HOW THEY GOT STARTED
On going viral: “It started about a year ago when we decided to come together and make a video for friends and family, but the response was good, so we said, ‘Why not make another?’ We wanted our videos to go viral — who wouldn’t? Happy to see that it worked out.” On the spoof idea: “We always imagined what it would be like to actually have a fast and furious race on Indian roads. And we thought of all the obstacles that would get in the way, things we see in our daily life.” On parodying cinema… “Be it spoofing Hollywood or Bollywood, we try to get the best humour out of everything… as long as it stays relatable and makes us laugh.” On the culture of easily taking offence: “Well, so far, people have been really nice and have been very supportive of our work. We feel fortunate and hope that it continues to stay that way. As for being politically correct or incorrect, everyone has their opinion and we try not to let that get in our way.” On advising comedians: “Our aim is not to mock but to provide a different perspective. Satire is an acquired taste; the beauty of it is that some will get the message and some will get a laugh out of it — we are fine with both. We are upcoming ourselves, but if we had to give advice to other, newer artists, we’d say, ‘If you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong.’”