6 days ago
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
‘I'm as hip-hop as anyone in the country': Delhi rapper Shauharty
"For me, Saddam Hussein has always represented the pure-unchecked male ego and narcissism," says shauharty. ''Saddam Hussainé' is just a creative lens, not a political statement,' he says, adding that satire runs deep in the production. 'The whole Saddam hiding spot meme is big in pop culture—we wanted to weave that in.'
Shot in the scorching deserts of Jaisalmer, the short film draws from classic Westerns like Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and Tarantino's Django Unchained and Pulp Fiction. 'Zaid (the director) and I wanted to make a gritty, satirical Western film,' says shauharty. 'We tried to blend Indian cultural elements into a visual language shaped by Hollywood.'
Saddam Hussein, carries a mysterious briefcase—an homage to Pulp Fiction's iconic glowing briefcase. Says shauharty: 'I couldn't think of anyone else but Saddam Hussein to carry it—it's as if he had a brief to be egoistic.' For the rapper, ego is an obstacle. 'If you're too egoistic to show who you are, you're limiting your potential and creating a false image,' he says. 'Letting go of ego was necessary to talk about subjects like identity, sexuality, and acceptance—topics that I'm covering throughout the forthcoming mixtape. I avoided them for a long time. Now, I'm finally ready to let that go.'
