“We had a great turnout for our film premiere at IFFSA and we are so proud to showcase this uniquely multicultural Canadian and British Columbia-based story right here in my hometown of Surrey,” said writer-director-producer R. Paul Dhillon. “We had a great response to the film – the audience reactions showed that the comedy in the film comes through with lots of laughs and that the story about modern relations and love connected with it’s core audience.”
SURREY – Well known Canadian filmmaker and award-winning journalist R. Paul Dhillon’s new film The Fusion Generation (DESI ANGREJ) premiered to great response at the International Film Festival of South Asia (IFFSA) Vancouver, the inaugural edition of the largest South Asian film festival in North America, which was held in Surrey recently.
“We had a great turnout for our film premiere at IFFSA and we are so proud to showcase this uniquely multicultural Canadian and British Columbia-based story right here in my hometown of Surrey,” said writer-director-producer Dhillon. “We had a great response to the film – the audience reactions showed that the comedy in the film comes through with lots of laughs and that the story about modern relations and love connected with it’s core audience.”
The Fusion Generation (TFG) is a romantic comedy set in Vancouver starring award-winning Canadian theatre actor Munish Sharma and Sitara Hewitt of Little Mosque OnThe Prairies fame. The film’s large diverse cast is headed by Bollywood legend Gulshan Grover, who plays pioneer Indo-Canadian-Sikh lumber mogul Sam Sahota. The film was the Closing Day film at IFFSA.
Dhillon describes TFG as a fun-filled cultural ride that also explores the Punjabi community’s rich history in British Columbia. He is proud of the fact that it features more than a dozen western Canada-based South Asian actors, many of whom have never worked on a feature film.
Dhillon said while the film is a fun party film about love, romance and getting married – it’s also about our community’s great history in our beautiful province of British Columbia and our history here in Canada, the greatest country in the world.
“I wanted to make something really fun while also telling the story of our community and who we are and in The Fusion Generation, I tried to blend the current and the past into a fun adventure. It’s also raunchy and naughty but we will be releasing a tamer Punjabi dubbed version for all audiences along with the English version which is for mature audiences,” Dhillon said.
Dhillon said his aim was to entertain with the real life raunchy romantic comedy and he’s ecstatic with the response the film received from the packed screening.
“People enjoyed the performances especially of our co-lead Thugpun who stood out with his charisma and real presence and did justice to Bobby’s character. But everyone from Dasaundha Kaler to Munish Sharma and Nimet Kanji and the entire cast which includes Bollywood legend Gulshan Grover and Canadian-US star Sitara Hewitt and Balinder Johal and B K Singh Rakhra, Nikki Shauna, Gelsea Mae, Raj Kumar Toora, Steve Dhillon, Charles Raahul Singh, Rashi Grewal, Sid Bhullar, Sunee Dhaliwal, Ash Dhawan, Jas Heer and Nalini Bhui and all other actors – I’m proud of the hard work they put in for a compact 19-day shoot,” Dhillon said.
The filmmaker, who has more than 40 writing-directing-producing credits on documentaries, television series and feature films, said filmmaking is a team effort and took time out to thank his entire cast and crew.
“I want to thank all the musicians who contributed to TFG starting with my friend and collaborator Kristopher Gee who provided a great music score as well as cinematography and editing. Punjabi music legend Balvir Boparai contributed a great opening track Shooter with music by rising music producer Harj Nagra, the rap hit Booty by Thugpun and songs (music-vocals) from established talent like Jugpreet Bajwa, Bob Mann, Kirti Arneja, Dave Bawa, Gelsea Mae, Sid Bhullar and Shivangi Bhayana,” Dhillon said.
“Thanks to IFFSA team – Sunny Gill, Inder Chopra and Jake Dheer and all their staff to make a great start to their Canada wide festival with the inaugural edition in Vancouver (Surrey). Wish them great success as it’s great platform for filmmakers as all Film Festivals are,” Dhillon concluded.
With the TFG Premiere done, Dhillon and his team are now setting up the worldwide theatrical release for The Fusion Generation (DESI ANGREJ). The film will be released in dubbed Punjabi and English versions in the established Bollywood-Punjabi markets in Spring 2019.
