Cinema Africa 24/25 - Interview with "Dilli Dark"' main actor Samuel Robinson
Abstract
- Abstract
- Samuel Abiola Robinson was our guest for the November edition of the Cinema Africa film festival 2024/25. The Nigerian actor stars in the movie "Dilli Dark" that was presented on 11.11.2024 in Cineplex Bayreuth. Before Robinson was present for the screening and subsequent discussion, he sat with the festival's organiser Prof. Dr. Ute Fendler for an interview talking about his career, life in New Delhi and forthcoming projects.
Origins & context
- Title
- Cinema Africa 24/25 - Interview with "Dilli Dark"' main actor Samuel Robinson
- Language
- English
- YouTube playlist
- Cinema Africa 2024/25
- Date
- November 21, 2024
Identifiers & sources
Full text
- Transcript
- yeah hello Samuel nice to have you with us here in B the University of b thank you welcome thank you very much it's a pleasure to be here it's really great occasion because there we we never had actually an Indian film in our program for the African Cinema so this will be kind of a premere but with a Nigerian actor so we are really very curious to learn more about your careers what how how did you how did you come to be in Indian films long story I guess I'll try to keep it uh brief uh yeah uh thank you very much for the question um so I I started working as an actor in my country uh Nigeria um and there I had um been fortunate enough to work on some uh some of the top projects in the country uh and in Africa as well uh I did a project for Disney called desperate houses Africa um and there was a project by a big uh production called MTV base which did a show called trigger which I was a part of so I had already um built up a little bit of a career in in Nigeria and so uh the film the first film I did the first Indian film I did Sudani from Nigeria uh they were when they were casting for it they were looking for uh a Nigerian actor within a certain age bracket who had certain features and looks um and they had had auditions and they were not finding what they wanted so um the director this is what he told me said he just Googled young Nigerian actors and saw a pictures of me there and then he sent that picture out to agents in the country to ask them to contact me that's how they reached out to me it was just supposed to be a very small film it was made with a very limited uh budget I mean by by Indian standards very limited small budget but the film ended up being a very uh very good success for them made a lot of money got a lot of critical claim as well it won a national award two national award the name of the film was Sudani from Nigeria um so it was a a malum film uh in a it's a regional very small Regional language uh in Kerala which is a state in in India uh and I mean the film got national attention uh and uh many people put it on their list of top uh top 25 Indian films of all time so yeah so because of that I got a lot of attention uh in India and I got another film and then I got another film I got this film which I'm here for so the film I'm here for uh is called Dilly dark it's uh in the Hindi language uh which is the major language language of India so it's this is my first Hindi uh language film um yeah um so maybe you can tell us a little bit more about about Dilly dark um because at least what I read also about the film is that it's a dark comedy um and it deals with quite serious problems though or topics let's put it that way um with uh some problems I mean social problems in India which might also involve racism or at least uh marginalizing people who who have a darker skin not only people coming from Africa but also in in India itself so how I mean how was your collaboration then with u with film director and how did you go about yourself with this kind of Topic in this film yeah thank you it's a very important question uh so you know the the director had reached out to me um asking me to to come and read for the film he initially didn't uh disclose uh what the film was about and and stuff he just gave me a little um synopsis and um but after the reading I think then he he was really interested in working with me then he told me more about the film it it was a really personal film for him uh because uh his name is debaca Das Roy he comes from a part of India called Bengal uh where they tend to have like darker skin tone and stuff so he had grown up facing a lot of uh instances of racism and and discrimination just as portrayed in the film and he wanted to tell a story that would be deeply personal to him but he did not he wanted to cast an African uh because he wanted to go like he did not want to because you know in terms of the experience that uh um that would happen uh the racial experience um Africans still even though dark skinned Indians face a lot of racism but it's still much more concentrated on the African population so he wanted it to be as authentic as as it could be and as um as real so that's why he decided to go with an African character instead of making it like a darker skinned Indian um and yeah when I read the script for the first time I really uh love the film I love the script I love the project I knew that this is something very important that I have to be a part of um and yeah so the film deals with uh you know what it means to be an outsider in in in in India you know um not just even as a as a dark skinned person uh even though that is uh the point that the film mostly touches upon but it also it it shows you how anyone uh who is not is considered to be an outsider in in India can and will face a lot of problems and issues with everything from even getting an apartment most people will not rent to to Outsiders uh getting a job I mean that's almost impossible no matter your qualifications even if you have a PhD you have multiple phds it's it's almost impossible to get a sensible job just off of the the color of your skin you know even jobs that people that are not not qualified would get even a highly qualified black person probably wouldn't still so it deals with these kinds of topics um and it follows the life of Michael OK which is the character that I play and how he uh is a student uh studying for his master's degree um and how he navigates the complexities of of life being uh a dark skinned uh black guy in India trying to get work trying to pursue happiness trying to find his way in in life um and all the difficulties he will face doing that in India I mean at a certain point I I wondered um if if some of the parts in the film might be kind of Auto almost autobiographical CU you also you moved to New da you're living in new DA right yes so maybe some of the experiences were not so yes definitely actually a lot of might have gone through yourself yeah I did actually a lot of the um a lot of the things in the film um Deca kind of based that off of stories that I had told him of things that happened to me so yeah I have also faced my fair share of um racial discrimination uh in in uh some parts of India um I mean I wouldn't say everywhere because I've also I've also met a lot of wonderful people who bring a lot of warmth and kindness um in in India also and then I've met I've been in some situations where uh you know it's it was just kind of scary I'll give you an example so I had just gotten myself a new motorcycle and I was just having fun I was riding it about just around my street where I live and this guy kept watching me from his window and I was like what is so he came down and started interrogating me that where did I get this motorcycle from this is he's going to call the police I was like man I'm just writing I I told him I live here I just I'm your neighbor he said he has never seen me before anyway to cut the long story short he called the police on me and reported that I had stolen the motorcycle which I had just bought and then the police came and they asked me for my driver's license and all of that stuff um and eventually they let me go because they realized that it belonged to me and but they were even still apologizing to the man who called the police not to me even though I did did nothing wrong and so situations like that I mean I think that for me that was probably the most most extreme one getting the police called on me for doing nothing he just said I looked suspicious and that um there have been many robberies around the area so so that was that happened to me personally and so many instances of trying to get a place to rent and not being able to and they would just they tell you directly and bluntly we do not rent to Africans we do not rent to foreigners we do not rent to foreigners sorry um so yeah I faced many of these kinds of things of course the very common ones are the stairs the dirty looks the nasty mutterings as they walk past you and things like that it's very very common in in in New Delhi but I mean still I I will say that once again just one side of experience yeah it's it's just one side of the experience there are still a lot of you know Wonderful Indian people who um some will even go out of their way to be kind to you and to help you and stuff so I think that it's I think it's something it's it's a it's a really big problem in in in India the racism thing but it's also something that is starting to um starting to get a little bit better very very little I would say maybe like a 0.1% each year because um hopefully people are getting more educated and more informed um so I'm hopeful that in the future people wouldn't have to deal with these kinds of things anymore and then I mean the filmm he opted for comedy right I mean even if they say a dark comedy but a comedy yeah um have you discussed with him or how do how what is your opinion about about this option that he deals with it in a comedy could also be a drama very could be a tragedy even this kind of topic yeah um I this is something that deak and I um did speak about uh quite a lot I had uh I was of the opinion that he should make it in a more dramatic sense but he kind of wanted to keep it on a lighter note he did not want it to be too serious because uh he did not want the film to get restricted from uh getting into theaters and and places If he if he does decide to release it that way so he wanted to do the film in a way where he could pass his message across but still present the film to be entertaining uh um because he thought if it was too serious then people may just to be to put it bluntly may just get a little bit offended by it and decide not to watch it or not to recommend it um so when you when he made when he made it as a comedy type of entertaining uh type of film you absorb the message and you're entertained and you leave the film still feeling offended yeah yeah you you don't feel offended or yeah did you have a chance also to to be at at the at the cinema when it was screened yeah I was premere maybe you had several ones where you all went together as a team yes uh so the film had its uh award premere at the Mumbai film festival in 2023 um and it was one of the uh one of the main films there we had like full uh theaters almost every time it was screen there a lot of people really love the film and they really they responded to it very very well um so it was really happy it was really uh exciting to be there engaging with the audience and people who had seen this film many um notable figures in Bollywood uh came they heard about this film that was generating some Buzz at the festival and came to see it uh and so it was it was pretty exciting to to do that to to be there but um even though we had that Premier it was still afterwards you know the director debaca has been trying to get uh a distribution deal for the film um that has still proven to be pretty difficult you know a film starring a black guy in India it's most people think there's no Market really for it even though it's a very entertaining film but the people who have seen it at festivals really loved it and found it to be very entertaining and also very uh informative and uh passing a strong message across I mean what you just said about um that it's maybe difficult to to to get the I mean get the film out there more than it already was because there's a Nigerian actor the main the main actor but you have played as you mentioned in the beginning uh already in several Indian films so I mean what is then your overall experience from the first film to to this one now how did did it change over the last I guess 3 years or something like that four years yeah um so the issue the the main thing is the main um reason for that for for why deaka is probably having the difficulty even though I've been in successful films um is because so in India they have so many different languages and and regions so um Hindi is the main language uh but there are so many sub languages and and sub regions and stuff so I had done a film in malam which is the the language of Kerala and it's like they have their they have the their own Cinema there the malum Cinema it's not mixed together so everyone people think it's just Bollywood but actually no each state has their own individual thing and there's a lot of um there's a lot of uh what's it call it now enemity or something like that between states where it's like okay someone who has done a malum film or who watches malum film does not want to watch the films coming from other states so so I had done a successful film in malum industry and this was a Hindi film Hindi language it was a different language which means different people which means different distributors different sort of background politics and stuff like that so um when you do a film in a different language they don't it doesn't matter to them what you have done in other languages no matter how successful what matters to them is like have you done something in our language so far that has been okay listen and yeah it's you know the film industry generally there's a lot of politics behind the scen that goes on to if you want to put a film out there it's not it's not easy even even if it wasn't um a Nigerian actor it's not easy generally to get a film out there to the right Distributors and stuff uh yeah that's very interesting what you say about the different film cultures uh when you go from one Province so to say to the other sorry um so actually then with your different films it's like just started every time in your career yeah exactly that that's the best way to put it every time you go to in a different language uh in in India in a different film from a different language it is like starting a new career a fresh it's like whatever experience you've had doesn't matter now it's it's like okay this is so they consider that to be your first film even if you've done 10 other films before if you're doing one film in that language that's considered to be your first film in that language and that's how it would be looked at I mean yesterday we talked a little bit about that and then you also said there's a new film coming out right now I think more or less at the same moment while we are talking yeah I have a new film uh coming out on the 29th uh of this month they have already begun promotions and stuff and and that will be in the Tamil language so it's a different language now so I've had malam now Hindi than Tamil language so um and Tamil is the language of Tamil Nadu chenai P Cherry um so that that was a a pretty big uh budget film um by my standards I mean uh so far um the biggest budget in terms of budget film that I've worked on um I had a a good role in it it wasn't a leading role but it was like a major supporting uh important role in that and I'm really excited for that to come out so the name of that film is uh SAR vasel so it means um Gates of Heaven something yeah okay yeah but as you mentioned all the conflicts also between different languages cultures and sometimes regions in India um that sounds a bit Yeah a bit complicated but at the same time it seems as if I mean if you continue this kind of career and you change the languages with each film you you become kind of a mediator as well while you are acting in different films I mean maybe I guess um I'm just grateful that uh I've been lucky and privileged enough and blessed to have had the opportunities to work in multiple languages uh in India um even generally to have left my country Nigeria and work internationally it's not I I was the first African actor Ever to start doing leading roles in in in Indian films um so uh I mean yeah in in some way because it's difficult even for an Indian actor to get films in other languages very difficult um but so but somehow I have been able to go through multiple languages so I'm very grateful for that maybe if I become big enough then maybe I would be able to um you know make some type of cultural change or change some of the mindset things that are already there like the perception that people have towards Africans and black people in in India um but I mean it's still too early to say that I will ever become that uh influential yeah yeah but I mean the fact that you that it's possible also I mean shows that there might be some I mean some changes in anouncing themselves yeah um could you say something about also about the work itself as you also have worked before in the film industry in in Lagos another very big uh film industry uh the Nigerian one also I mean with different different compartments maybe not as many as in India but still a lot and very big um do you see any I mean it's just film industry or do you see any differences in in working in Nigeria and in India besides the fact that you're a foreigner in India yeah um I think the major difference um between Nigerian films and and Indian films honestly maybe it's it's it's not a good thing to say about one's own country but I think it's it's probably professionalism where in India they tend to take it more seriously much more seriously than they do so they pay more attention to but maybe because also they have bigger budgets so they want to use a better camera they they pay more attention to the technical requirements uh for the films they wanted to look a particular way whereas in Nigeria mostly they just want to get the work done as quickly as possible and just get it out there so I think I would say that that's the major difference is that it's more attention to detail especially uh I've noticed that especially in my work in South Andia in the malam industry the Tamil industry um they pay a lot significant attention to detail like in Nigeria they would try to shoot 10 scenes 15 scenes in a day whereas in India in South India most especially people try to shoot maybe one or two scenes in a day and just do the same scene again and again for hours until they get it they get it right they don't rush they take their time so once again probably because they have bigger budgets they can afford to to do this so but I would say that that's the major difference um other than that everything else is is pretty much just standard film industry stuff similar stuff yeah and do you have to now that you have that you're building your Korean and India do you also get them different offers maybe from Nigeria yeah um I do get offers from Nigeria and Africa um I haven't yet worked on one uh in a while but if I get an offer that I feel is something that I have to work on then I will definitely uh I'm open to it I'm open to still working in in Africa and and stuff yeah I mean as a told here we uh um in in bid it's also about I mean we we're still at University so it's a lot about African studies and the relationship or the connections between the African continent and the Asian continent is also which is a of uh increasing importance and interest in in research um so this is also why I thought that these films that and one uh your film was one of them uh I had the impression they also show the connections there's I if I look on different platforms not only Netflix but also on others that there are more and more films and series that deal with um mainly Nigerians actually if if we talk about Africans in India it's mainly Nigerians coming to to India as if this would be also be uh an increasing phenomena that is not an isolated phenomena that Africans are working in in Asia and maybe then also the other way around yeah I I think that the um the bilateral relations between uh most African countries and and Asian countries have have certainly strengthened in the past few years um and because of this it's it's gotten easier to um to get access to visas and and things like that so I think that's why we're seeing a lot more um and because people are starting to get more open especially in India open to the ideas of having Africans in their films um and because because now it's starting to matter because there have been many African students who have lived in India and in other parts of Asia for a while they have had lives they have had experiences so they become important to the story like this Tamil film um that I did um so it's uh the the the director added an African character because he was trying to make it based on a true life story and Africans were a part of that story so it's no longer just fiction there are Africans living in India working there contributing to the economy being a part of the the culture and thus they become part of the story from that and um yeah there there have been other African actors who have come and done one or two projects uh in India um and and Indian actors also who have gone to Nigeria and done uh one or two projects um so yeah I I think that the relationship is strengthening between uh especially the cultural relationship between those continents because I I don't it's not just I don't think it's just Nigeria because I've um seen some people from uh some haian people black a black girl who was in an IM malum film as well uh there's been some ganians in some films maybe not necessarily in like leading roles but um in they they've been a part of of the films so I think it's it's it's strengthening and and I'm I'm really happy to see that because because of this people are getting more used to because honestly from my experience in India a lot of the racism really stems from a lack of Education um it's it's it's not so much that they are just inherently racist is that they have been taught to be like they they feel like they have to be racist because uh they only hear this particular type of news or that particular kind of propaganda you know so um but when whenever most people who are acting racist when they get to know an African person and they spend time with them then they realize oh then you asking your person Oh I thought you guys were this and I thought you guys were that but I'm really surprised you seem so different and it's like so I I think people are getting better educated uh and these films are contributing significantly to and I'm just really happy and grateful that I get to be a part of that M sounds fantastic maybe because we skipped kind of the first film can you also tell us a little bit what the first film was about huh so the first film I did Sudani from Nigeria was uh about a young football player who had uh come into India to play football and and and pursue his dreams and then he was uh he was on a team and he was the uh the main player or the best player in that team it was the he gets them the goals and and all that so then he had a major injury um which led him to be disabled for a little while and it really just shows you the kind of uh warmth and compassion of the people of Kerala which even I have experienced uh myself um they're very nice people um mostly in Kerala um how they all come together as a community to help this injured um uh African guy who had no one because he was in India alone so he had no one to take care of him and the whole Community paid his bills they took care of him they even kept him in their homes and were taking care of him and feeding him even though there were there were uh language barriers there were cultural differences there were religious differences but it's it's just sort of it's it's a really warm film about just uh an integrating of different cultures and Humanity really where uh the film shows you that even if even though people may be from all types of places and all kinds of religions and all kinds of social economic statuses they all at the end of the day we're all humans and we all come together and it's a really beautiful film I don't think I've done it justice in in my description to be honest it's it's a very beautiful and very important film I mean we talked about this before unfortunately it's not on the German uh platform it's not available um that's why I also ask this maybe then some people get interested and might find it on other platforms that might be available um yeah maybe I forgot to ask something maybe you wanted to tell other stories that I'm not even aware of that might be important also to share about your experience as an actor your experience as a actor in India yeah no I think uh We've covered uh most of the uh most of the things um I'm just grateful to be to be in India and I I I hope that um I hope that it will eventually grow to be something that can where I can have a meaningful impact on the society you know because that would be that would be wonderful to have contributed something yeah and is there some I don't know diff maybe a genre or a role that you are kind of dreaming of you say okay this is something that you would that you would really like to to play to to be the actor in yeah uh I wouldn't say a role per se but um because um it's it's it's you just never know it's like directors some directors are extremely creative and they can make such wonderful magical roles so I always look forward to uh I just I just want to I just want to keep on playing roles that are important um that are also uh you know relevant to society and and and to the culture kind of like the roles that I have been getting so far and I've been so lucky to have been getting those roles that uh where you it's not just entertainment or like slapstick comedy or something you actually passing the message across an important message um so I like doing those kinds of rows and I hope that I will keep on getting uh things like that like important roles like that okay so thank you very much and then we are looking forward to continue our discussion after the screening of the film yeah thank you for having me thank you so much