Farid Kamil impressed by the end result of "Tombiruo: Penunggu Rimba" which is on a par with international productions.

The name Farid Kamil needs no introduction given the nearly two decades of involvement in the film industry and is an actor with vast experiences.

Other than acting, Farid also dabbled in the world of directing. He has directed a number of films, most of which are of the action genre, his favourite genre of all.

Even though his big screen appearances are becoming scarce these days, the 36-year-old actor can definitely serve a punch when he does show up.

Now, Farid is coming out with a new action film, "Tombiruo: Penunggu Rimba", which is adapted from a popular novel of the same title.

Although Zul Ariffin plays the main character of the film, Ejim or Tombiruo, Farid's role does not lose out and balances the story with the former.

During the premiere of "Tombiruo: Penunggu Rimba" that took place at MBO Cinemas Starling Mall recently, Cinema Online had the opportunity to interview the husband of Diana Danielle, FFM 29's Best Supporting Actress, to share his experience and difficulties in filming the movie.

Cast of the upcoming "Tombiruo: Penunggu Rimba".

Cinema Online: Can you tell us a bit about your character in the film?

Farid: In this movie, I play the role of Amiruddin, a forest ranger and also the husband to Salina which is portrayed by Faye Kusairi. One day, his wife and father-in-law were involved in an accident during a chasing scene between Tombiruo and the baddies, where he then misunderstood and accused Tombiruo as causing his wife's death and started pursuing him for revenge.

What makes you agree to star in this movie?

This is a good project and along with the production team involved, I could not have been more excited to be a part of this movie. I also gained a new experience working with the production crew, who incorporated a Hollywood-style of working whereby they don't work over 12 hours and were not rushing to complete every scene.

With this style of working, I was able to be more focused and committed to every scene that I was in, especially those with action in it.

So, was it hard filming those action sequences and did you do all your stunts?

Almost all the heavy action scenes in the movie were done by me without any stunt double, but then there were a few scenes where we had to use them. We took around two weeks training for the action sequences and that made it easier when filming. I personally did not find those scenes challenging, since I'm used to doing it.

If the action scenes were not challenging, then which scene do you think was difficult?

Believe it or not, the scene that was the hardest for me was when I had to embrace the body of my dead wife (Salina) after the accident. At that time, I had to think of how to make the facial expression of being shocked and sad when your loved one is dying right in front of your eyes.

Can you share your experience working alongside Seth Larney and Nasir Jani? Were there any difficulties involved with it?

I am grateful to have the two great men working on this movie. I don't really have any problem working with both of them since they have different scopes.

When I watched the finished product, I was very excited and impressed because the quality that came out can be deemed as being on a par with international films and this could even be a new yardstick to the local film industry.

Are you suggesting that the local productions should be more open to collaborating with other people?

I don't see any wrong in importing outside's specialty in helping us produce a quality film. There might be some that will argue that the quality is good because of their effort but it is still a Malaysian film and not a foreign one.

Take the example of football, when we look at our local league, we can see players being imported to make the local teams stronger. So for me, I think we should be more open-minded if we want to continue going forward and producing more quality films.

What are your hopes for this movie?

I hope that the audiences can give their support for this movie as we had given our best in terms of our acting and a big budget was also spent in making sure that the movie came out good. From what I had seen, it is worth it, and those who watch it will definitely not be disappointed.

(Photo source: FINAS' Facebook )