Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with The Great Artist’s Sunny Vachher and Matthew Postlethwaite

Sunny Vachher and Matthew Postlethwaite are gifted storytellers who are shaping the world around them through art. They’re crafting powerful narratives that have had a profound effect on audiences and are creating necessary conversations within their communities. Pop Culturalist had the pleasure of speaking with Sunny and Matthew about their mission as creatives and their latest project, The Great Artist.

Career

PC: How did you discover your passion for storytelling?
Sunny: Growing up in India, I fell in love with Bollywood movies at a very young age. Movies have always had a major impact on me (in great ways, of course), and Bollywood movies are over-the-top romantic in the most classic ways possible. So naturally, storytelling became a dream that I just had to realize. I would find myself shocked that movies would often bring me to tears and make me so happy whenever seeing love stories find a happy ending (which is almost always the case in the early Indian cinema). As a child, I was able to feel the emotions that the filmmakers were telling in their stories. This made me want to create films and tell stories that had the same effect on others. I wanted to touch people with love.

Matthew: I always used to put on shows for my family with my two brothers, even if they didn’t want to see them. As I grew older, I began to realize the importance of storytelling and its use for entertainment, but more so, how the stories we consume help guide the world’s narrative. There is a great responsibility that storytelling has. It can change and alter social ideas.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Sunny: The biggest influence has definitely been Indian cinema and my Indian culture. I grew up with it. So, a life without it wouldn’t ever be possible. India is very rich in heritage and its cultural traditions. It’s vast and vibrant. There is a harmonious blend of art, religion, and philosophy in the culture. They are so beautifully interwoven in the fabric of the Indian way of life and thought that they are inseparable.

Matthew: In full transparency, the biggest influence is probably the days where I wasn’t acting full time. When I was that small kid living in England with a big dream, imagining myself as an actor, I would watch Inside the Actors Studio religiously. Interviews with Angelina Jolie, Jim Carrey, Will Smith, Robin Williams have always stayed with me. That show really did have a profound effect on me; I was able to consume their world. It was fascinating. I still am very much fascinated by the craft of acting. I actually took myself on a walk one day in New York City and stood outside the building where they filmed Inside the Actors Studio, and just looking at it, I was probably there for about an hour staring at the building. People must have thought I was crazy looking back now. Or I just fit right into NYC. As a bonus: Heath Ledger as the Joker had probably the biggest impact on my desire for depth of character.

The Great Artist

PC: Tell us about The Great Artist and the inspiration behind the short.
Sunny: The Great Artist is a beautiful and emotional journey of an artist through his most difficult and most exciting times. It was created to drive and bring transformative and empowering change for those suffering from mental health illnesses. The need to shine a spotlight on mental health is now more important than ever. As a creator, I wanted to present a narrative that could powerfully break barriers and boundaries and build an openness for anyone and everyone to find the empowerment to “talk” about our feelings—to share what we are going through with our loved ones. Highlighted by the current pandemic, depression levels are at an all-time high, emphasizing a major underlying issue of mental health in the world. We felt the need to do more to address the stigma of mental health so that people can get the help they need. It was a story that needed to be told.

Matthew: The Great Artist is a project that is very closely related to both Sunny and myself. We each have very acute storylines that are woven very profoundly into the writing.

For myself, The Great Artist was created from a place of understanding—my own journey with mental health as an artist. I paint for enjoyment, as a way of expression, and over the last ten-plus years of painting, I have noticed that my paintings are quite vastly different depending on my mental state. That idea initially sparked The Great Artist. The exploration of the mind and creativity has been a subject long talked about, and we just added a cinematic flair to it.

We also used it as a point. As storytellers, we can control the narrative, and we purposefully sought a diverse cast because we can do so. We wanted to create a world that looks like the world Sunny and I are surrounded by. In fact, some of the cast are our friends whom we had asked for favors.

It’s been said that it is progressive. I think that’s a little nonsense. It’s an accurate portrayal of a world.

PC: The Great Artist has been incredibly well received. What do you think is resonating most with audiences?
Sunny: The Great Artist has so purely become relative to everyone that has seen it. It’s impacted our audiences very deeply. It’s allowed our family, friends, and strangers to find the confidence and comfortability to start a conversation around their own mental health issues. It’s a wonderful feeling knowing and seeing how the film has positively impacted people and made them realize that the simplicity of talking about it can become the easiest step to healing.

Matthew: I think that a lot of people can relate to The Great Artist. He’s very much like all of us. He has the same insecurities we all have. I think people relate to him or a certain identity that he is portraying because with Dissociative Identity Disorder all the identities are real. They’re just heightened. People see themselves in him.

PC: What’s next for you both?
Sunny: We are in the development of The Great Artist as a TV series and have several feature films being conceptualized for the big screens. I co-founded Purpose Co with my creative partner Matthew Postlethwaite. Purpose Co is on a mission to tell purpose-driven stories focused on creating transformative change within our supercommunities. I want Purpose Co to achieve a B Corp status in the near future and be recognized and celebrated for becoming a force for good in our world.

Matthew: We’re turning The Great Artist into a TV series, and I’m so excited for it. We’re also going to continue our quest to tell real stories that impact, and we have a few films we’re adapting though we can’t say much about them yet. It’s a very busy time for us, and we’re so grateful for that. Building the Purpose Co studio!

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: Guilty pleasure TV show?
Sunny: Romantic comedies and dating shows on Netflix.

Matthew: Queen’s Gambit.

PC: Guilty pleasure movie?
Sunny: La La Land.

Matthew: Blue Jasmine.

PC: Favorite book?
Sunny: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling.

Matthew: At the moment, Broken People by Sam Lansky.

PC: Favorite play or musical?
Sunny: A Star is Born.

Matthew: Les Misérables.

PC: A band or artist that fans would be surprised to learn is on your playlist?
Sunny: All the Bollywood classics. I can’t live without it. And Coldplay—any day, any time.

Matthew: JPCooper.

Make sure to follow Sunny (Twitter/Instagram) and Matthew (Twitter/Instagram).

Photo Credit: Elijah Starr (Sunny) and Theo and Juliet (Matthew)