Nirmal Pillai interview: On his 40-minute film ‘Bata Boy and Crocs Girl’

Content creator Nirmal Pillai tackles new challenges with his first film, merging comedy, art, and multilingual storytelling

In a world dominated by Instagram reels, storytelling often comes in bite-sized bursts, designed to steal our attention in under a minute. The pace is frenetic, content ephemeral, and dopamine rush immediate. Films, on the other hand, demand a slower, more immersive engagement — a stark contrast to today’s scroll-and-swipe culture. The two mediums cater to vastly different appetites: Reels demand brevity, often no more than a flash of humour or insight, while films require a commitment of time and focus, asking the viewer to surrender to a story. Comedian Nirmal Pillai, based in Bengaluru, is transitioning from the former to the latter with a 40-minute multilingual mumblecore (a sub-genre characterised by oft-improvised dialogue and focus on young adult relationships) film, Bata Boy and Crocs Girl which recently premiered at the Bangalore International Centre.

This romantic drama takes us into the lives of Gokul and Ishita — two individuals navigating their undefined relationship as they describe it: “We like each other, hang out together, and have sex. But we’re not in a relationship.” Do they have it all figured out? Absolutely not, says the film’s summary. Set in Bengaluru — which Nirmal calls the “New York of South India” — the film attempts to capture the fleeting charm of urban romances in new cities.

Nirmal, who studied architecture, began making reels during the COVID-19 pandemic. Soon, he became a popular content creator on Instagram. He acted in an Amazon Prime Video anthology, Putham Puthu Kaalai, and ventured into stand-up comedy, among other things. But becoming a filmmaker was always at the back of his mind.

“It’s the main reason I took all these different routes to get there. I think we made a film in ninth grade. It was a very bad film, 40 minutes long, called Nanga Kadavul. It was about some Greek gods coming to Chennai. It was really bad,” he laughs, “But we finished it. Despite how bad it was, we still wanted to go back to making films because we had a lot of fun making it.”

Making all those reels on Instagram helped him a bit in filmmaking. “The thing I learnt with reels is that humour is more effective when it’s simpler. If you have an observation, how do you convey it funnily? Reels helped me think out of the box. I also edited all my reels, which taught me about editing for humour. Different cuts can make you laugh, and that’s my favourite kind of joke.”

But he also had to unlearn a few things. “Reels are fast-paced; something happens, you laugh, and move on. This urgency can carry over to writing or staging scenes. But for a film, you must let scenes breathe and have meaningful dialogue. Giving characters a journey is something I had to learn.”

Despite making reels for the Instagram generation, Nirmal’s creative sensibilities are shaped by filmmakers who approach cinema as art instead of commerce. One of his biggest inspirations is Martin Scorsese, whose films he likens to reading a book. “Scorsese also does things that make you think, ‘I can’t believe I could do this in a film.’ For example, the beginning of The Wolf of Wall Street — that freeze-frame narration — is such an effective way of storytelling.” Another major influence is Alphonse Puthren’s Premam, a film that redefined his understanding of cinematic possibilities. “That film didn’t have any marketing; I just walked into it with my parents and was completely mind-blown. It made me realise, ‘Oh, I didn’t know I could do that in a film.’” He speaks passionately about how even small details like typography in Premam inspired him to rethink visual storytelling.