UCLA student takes his hit mockumentary ‘Keeping Up With the Guptas’ to a premier
Fourth-year economics student Sunny Tripathy (far right) sits with his on-screen family from the student-made comedy “Keeping Up With the Guptas.” (Photo courtesy of Sunny Tripathy)
By Catherine Flanagan
Sept. 24, 2010 1:13 a.m.
What started as a comedic family spoof made just for friends and posted on YouTube, turned into the ride of a lifetime that one UCLA student never expected. Filmed in 72 hours, the student-made comedy “Keeping Up With the Guptas” will premier on Sept. 24 at the Tanzore Lounge in Beverly Hills.
“Keeping Up With the Guptas” follows one Indian family’s comedic and dramatic life. Fourth-year economics student Sunny Tripathy did not originally intend for anyone but friends to see the spoof of his family.
“I was going home for winter break last year, and I was thinking about some of the funny things that were going on at home and decided to pull out a camera and film it,” Tripathy said.
With help from his friend, second-year business economics student Sahil Punamia, Tripathy put together a script. He took a handheld camera and filmed a few short videos that involved his family.
“We did a kind of mockumentary format similar to “˜The Office,’ with interviews,” Tripathy said. “Originally, it was intended for close friends and family who knew my family and would find it funny.”
However, much to Tripathy and his family’s surprise, after a few weeks of posting the videos to YouTube, Tripathy’s videos received more than 30,000 hits and even shout outs on Twitter.
“We didn’t think that much of it at the time, but we decided that since people seemed to really like this, it has potential,” Tripathy said.
With a $1,000 budget and 72 hours to film, Tripathy, his family and students from UC Irvine, UC Riverside, the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, Berklee College of Music, and New York University, as well as many other international students, collaborated to transform the amateur film and script into a full-length feature television premier.
“Basically it was full of national and international students coming together. … Even with the distance they were able to come together and it was very cool,” Tripathy said.
The full-length television premier does not start where the YouTube episode left off but instead takes the old pilot and refurbishes it. Also, what makes this premier unusual is that most of the actors and film crew have not had prior professional experience, including Punamia, the assistant director.
“That’s what made it better,” Punamia said. “I had no idea what the standards were in the industry, and it was kind of “˜take it as it comes’ for me. It was definitely a great learning experience because a lot of unexpected things happen on set, and being the assistant director, you have to learn to deal with them.”
While Punamia has always loved watching TV, from this experience he said he has become more intrigued by the production and behind-the-scene aspects of television.
“We are just college students and are just doing this out of love for film,” Punamia said.
This Friday’s screening and event takes the YouTube phenomenon beyond its Internet fame. Third-year film and television student Melissa Nemcek, who is also the show’s unit production manager, helped to bring the event to fruition.
“(I’m in charge of) basically anything that tends to impede the creative process, including the premier,” Nemcek said.
The proceeds of the premier and the after-party will go to The World Hunger Project, for which Tripathy is an ambassador. The red carpet event is expected to include some of the cast of “Valentine’s Day” as well as a performance from H*wood.
“I am absolutely nervous beyond words for this premier but still hopeful,” Tripathy said. “We have such an amazing team that has worked really hard, and it will be amazing to bring them together again.”
