When a young and obsessed bodybuilder gets challenged by his nagging wife while working he must find a way to resolve the issue peacefully, but will he?

Interview with Writer/Director/Producer Shrunal Tembhurne

Congratulations! Why did you make your film?

Once I was at the restaurant and I happened to see the flyer about “Domestic Violence” and I was so shocked that the majority of the cases involved intimate partners. The people who were supposed to be in love and care about each other - how could they end up hurting each other? What goes wrong?

The main reason behind creating “The Workout” was that people I have been interacting with on a day-to-day basis are getting very self-observant. Those people are filled with ego, arrogance, an unwillingness to let minor things go, obsessing over things and they don’t seem to worry about humanity at all.

Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?

If you are a true fan of the thriller, suspense, full of surprises, twists and turns in a short amount of time with a big impact? You may want to see my movie!

How do personal and universal themes work in your film?

The Workout is not actually personal to me as it’s a true fiction. But it explores what I wanted to convey in my film - how one can go that far or be pushed to the edge to behave in a certain way or even commit a crime. On average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by their intimate partners in the United States.

How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?

The production went thought many hoops, I had written a very exciting and ambitious script with stunts and all that needed to be executed properly in a very low budget film.

The biggest challenge was finding good actors and choosing them from about 400 submissions. Also it took me a reasonable amount of time to hire a good cinematographer and crew members that could work in a fast paced environment as the filming was scheduled for only a day, again keeping the budget limitations in mind. Fortunately the location was free as it was owned by one of my friends.

What type of feedback have you received so far?

Very intense, dark subject matter. Very well shot, looks great and professionally executed, awesome performances by actors, holly shit! etc.

Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?

Yes, some people thought it lacks a moral but on the other hand many thought after all that it’s a film and not real life, and that it related to the characters for what they did and why.

What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?

I want to reach out to a large portion of the audience. I want to be promoted as an authentic director/filmmaker and achieve the image of a commercial director who can be trusted enough to execute a dark genre.

Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?

All of the above are welcome with any questions for future projects.

What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?

I like the audience to react with surprises at every corner, hopefully there will be screams at certain points and to leave them with horror at the end.

What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?

What’s the main cause of Intimate Partner Domestic Violence?

What are the key creative developing or working on now?

Working on a feature length supernatural horror film. I'm in the process of writing a screenplay and hopefully it will be produced next year.

Interview: May 2017

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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela

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The Workout

When a young and obsessed bodybuilder gets challenged by his nagging wife while working he must find a way to resolve the issue peacefully, but will he?

Length: 8:41 Min

Director: Shrunal Tembhurne

Producer: Shrunal Tembhurne

Writer: Shrunal Tembhurne

About the writer, director and producer:

Shrunal Tembhurne a working Director/Actor local in Los Angeles area.

Shrunal Tembhurne was born in Nagpur, India. He was fascinated by the Bollywood film industry, and performed on various colleges level dance competitions, and discovered his passion for cinema and television.

The Indian Government awarded him a full scholarship in 2013 to pursue his film education, so he moved to Los Angeles and earned his Masters degree in film productions and acting in 2015. He has written, directed and produced over ten different short films and is working on in his first feature film Atman.

"As a director I strongly believe a good movie is made great by strong performances by actors, thus elevating the film. No matter how many fancy special effects you use throughout the movie, if the performance is not powerful the audience will not care about them and the movie will not be able stay in their hearts."

Key cast:

Devinair Mathis: Working Actor/model in Los Angeles.

Devin McCarthy: Working Actress in Los Angeles area.

Looking for (Talent agents, producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists):

Social media handles:

Facebook: @theworkoutfilm and @Shrunal.film and @shrunaltembhurne

Twitter: @The_Workoutfilm and @tshrunal

Instagram: @the_workout_and@shrunal_t

Website: www.theworoutfilm.com, www.shrunaltembhurne.com

Other:

Funders: Shrunal Tembhurne

Where can I see it in the next month?

Still waiting to hear back from various film festivals or you can just get in touch with me and I will share the private Vimeo link with you.