Ssumier Pasricha ropes in 12 actors for social distancing video

Over the last few weeks, there have been a slew of posts, messages and memes to drive home the importance of lockdown and safety in times of coronavirus. And actor Summier Pasricha had done this as well, via a fun video! He got 12 actors to collaborate with him for a video to create awareness on social distancing. Joining him in his new Pammi Aunty video are Jayati Bhatia, Nimisha Vakharia, Smita Bansal, Maniesh Paul, Gunjan Utreja, Rohit Roy, Karan Veer Mehra, Grusha Kapoor, Nilu Kohli, Danny Sura, Rohit Verma and Madhu Chandhok.
'I had to figure kaunsa dialogue kaun bolega aur kiski personality ko suit karega'
Says Ssumier, "I am a creative person and I had this concept I had written much before. It's a hilarious take at the current situation. I first shortlisted 12 actors who I wanted and who were very easily accessible to me and I asked them. They were all eager to participate. For instance, Maniesh told me, 'Bhai tere liye kuch bhi. Karan Veer, Gunjan, Rohit Roy and Rohit Verma, all said, 'Yes, anything for you'."
Ssumier who is stuck in Delhi at present due to lockdown, wrote the script to match each one's personality and each of the actors shot their part of the video and had to send it to him. "I had to figure kaunsa dialogue kaun bolega aur kiski personality ko suit karega. I sent this to them and even explained the angle and where they would be standing in their homes, who would be 'sitting' next to whom, etc. It was the first time I gave such direction to any actor especially as they are senior, but they were all so nice to me. They got back saying, "Sssumier yeh angle galat ho gaya, yeh tone sahi nahi pakda, iss tone ko aisa lo na please?' So they were very into it and the whole experience has been such fun. The end edit result has come out so well, it is as though we are sitting in the same home," he explains .
'It's a very relatable situation as this is the wedding season'
This video actually came about after something in Sumier's own family. "It's a real situation from my own family," he affirms, "I have my niece's wedding coming up and the whole discussion was, 'Yeh karengey kya ab?' I thought, 'Yeh toh Pammi Aunty topic hai.' In the video, at the end it comes though that nothing is more important than health. The message is that nothing matters more than health and that one must stay home and practice social distancing. In fact, the video also shows that everyone is sitting in their own homes. Best part is that none of the actors knew the script. No one asked, 'kitney dialogues hai'.. everyone went with it and that is really nice." He also got feedback to those he spoke to about the video. "You know, someone called me and said, 'Do you know, this is the exact same situation in my house with two weddings lined up n the in next two weeks so people really relate to it." So,this is very relatable as this is the wedding season. It's fun, real look at a situation that could take place in any family."