Back Alley Bulls

Back Alley Bulls is a production of Naicoman Productions, an American Indie film company. It is produced and directed by Cynthia Rabinaico and Blainey Kaltman. The script is written by Blainey Kaltman and it is a story about an American English language teacher, Roman Jersey (played by Kaltman himself), who lost his job after he is caught sleeping with one of his students. Consequently, leading him into an intricate web of lust, greed, deceit, revenge and gang clashes.

I played the role of the gang leader Big Beng, the cause for Jersey's many nightmares. The production happened two years ago in 2011 when ironically, had me looked several years older! :)  Isn't it amazing how a bit of makeup and gangster bling had made the difference?

Here is a clip of a confrontation with Jersey, whom Big Beng is trying to squeezed some money out of.

I nearly stuck the real burning cigarette into Jersey's nostril, as his rescue came a split second too soon and nudged me forward involantarily, pushing the cigarette deeper than necessary into his nose. Lucky for Blaine, I had just pinched away the burning bit of the cigarette just a microsecond before. Otherwise, you would have seen the real pain and screams captured on film!!!

The locations were set entirely in Singapore with visible portions of them at Little India. Believe me it was actually strenuous being the big bad guy shouting profanities, threats and beating up people consistently for so many days. It felt like I was going through a therapy for releasing repressed anger and megalomania. The dialogues were curiously crafted as colloquial American English, and exactly for the purpose of communicating with the American audience.

Meanwhile on set, we were street entertainment to the crowds of Indian and Bangladeshi foreign workers on their day-off. We can see that they  enjoyed themselves thoroughly as they gave us a rousing applause after each take.

Production frequently took us to the wee hours of the morning with fourteen hour days not uncommon. Supper was usually Indian Bryani, packed with a mountain of rice, catered usually to local labourers more than carbohydrate conscious artistes. Nevertheless, they tasted great at that time of the night, as we devoured the packets of rice, as we sat by the roadside kerb healing our grinding stomachs.

After the production, I got a sore throat and a significantly diminished desire for aggression. I then turned quiet and placid for several days. :)

Another trailer....

For all my gangster gigs, click here.