With Kabeer Khurana’s short film Cuddles, Jamie Lever, the daughter of seasoned actor Johnny Lever, makes her acting debut as the main character.
Cuddles, starring Komal Chhabria, Viveck Vaswani, and Jamie Lever, will begin streaming on Disney+ Hotstar on December 3. Based on a short tale by Larissa Theule, Cuddles is a movie (Kafka and the Doll). Avirat Parekh and Kabeer Khurana both contributed to the writing and directing of the film.
In reference to Cuddles, Jamie remarked, “When I met Kabeer and comprehended his vision as he described the tale to me, I was sold on the script. It was challenging for me because I’ve always done comedy and this project is so different from everything else I’ve ever done. It’s delicate, real, and from the heart.
When it comes to humour, you can be over the top and loud with your performance, but when you’re dealing with a subject like this, you need to be incredibly subtle, emotional, and underplay to bring out those strong emotions, she continued.
The casting for short films is usually difficult, as director Kabeer Khurana noted about his choice of performers. Since there is no market for short films, every effort is made to find an actor who is not only a good fit for the character’s appearance but also has the necessary recognition online. There were a lot of names mentioned, including Jamie’s and Viveck’s. I thought it would be fascinating to have Jamie defy the perception that a performer is only a comic in favour of being a nuanced and emotional one because my mother was a big admirer of both her stand-up and internet work.
