0:0 PM – Part – IV
I reached home at around eleven thirty pm or so, maneej my friend and my associate director on the film came at home with me. Here i was directing my first short film and after a days shoot what my cameraman ramani tells me is that we don’t have any film left to shoot. I am desperate, i don’t want to cancel the shoot as i was dead sure that if i cancel it for lack of money and raw stock i will never be able to complete it. I just tell all my unit members tomorrow two pm shift in the slums behind lotus petrol pump. All throughout the train journey back home i kept thinking what am i going to do. Just as the shoot was over one of the lightmen Vishnu told me that he was shooting a video two days back and they were shooting on 16mm and i clearly remember that one can was left, in case if u want to speak to the production guy? I didnt have a choice somebody, i think Ramani himself spoke to the guy and asked him to drop it at the location the next day. Only condition was we pay them five thousand rupees for the stock.
I reached home, i felt like drinking, but good boys don’t drink at home, plus having lost your brother to alcohol makes it all the more difficult. so we quietly had our dinner and went to bed. Maneej by now had dozed off, nobody knew what was going to happen the next day, not even me. The moment i saw the watch it was close to three am, i got up with a jerk, abusing myself, cursing myself as to how come i went of to sleep without making any arrangement for the shoot today. Quickly came to rescue was Dhirubhai’s Guru, oops, i mean reliance phone. I ssarted messaging all my friends saying please help, i need money to complete my short film and i don’t want to leave it incomplete. For the first time in life i felt what it is like to beg. But i was ready for it. Whether it was Nandu kale (one of the talented TV directors and a friend), Sujit Patki my college friend, Rakesh sain Srirams very efficient associates, chandan arora, Ravi kale who also acted as the ward boy whom we see in the white clothes in my film or for that matter Chander of Sarkar, Amitji’s bald right hand. Plus, i must have messaged many many more people. The reason i remember these names is only because this people came to my rescue. Rakeshji came with his 1000/- rupees, inspite of the fact that he himself was in a bad condition, nandu came in with around two thousand ruppes, Ravi kale whom i shall always be thankful handled a local goon as well as contributed by giving me 1000/- rupees.
The best was Sujit, my college friend. He did not have any idea that i was shooting my film. Neither is he a filmy person. I was extremely touched by his gesture when he landed up with a bundle of five thousand rupees, ramani my DOP gave me three thousand grants. Though i still owe sujit and ramani that money which i intend to pay back in the coming fifteen twenty years for sure. I did try to return the money to ravi, but he flatly refuses to take it even now. ‘Thank you buddy”. Now the money was there, i paid for the film, there was just one shot of Ravi that i needed to take. I had asked him to come later, but he said ‘no, no i will handle the production job for you surya”. And lucky i was to have him there. as we started shooting, one of the samll timer activists of shiv sena came and started bullying me. I felt like kicking his ass, but i was too much in shit already. Ravi saw me hassled and asked me “what happened?” i told him, “local politician is threatening that we cannot shoot outside, on the roads as we do not have permissions”. ravi, “is it?”, “yes”. “Ok ” and guess what? What Ravi kale does is, he takes the so called member of shiv sena aside and asks him in a language that he would undersatnd. “Haan bol, kya chahiye? tere ko maloom hain kya hum log kya kar rahe hain? Yeh ladka, iska naam surya hain, yeh director hain, apne paise se yeh film bana raha hain, hum log artists hain, hum sab iski madat kar rahe hain, aaj iske paas yeh shooting karne ke liye paise nahi the, hum sab logon ne aur kuch doston ne paise ekkatthe kiye hai, aur main yahan shoot karoonga, andar bhi karunga, aur bahar bhi karunga. aur kiska naam bola tu?” Ravi takes his mobile phone out, “Vinay yedekar?” scrolls down, “english padhne aata hain?, yeh Vinay yedekar ka number”. He further srolls down, “yeh padh, isko, yeh uddhavji ka number” the man doesn’t know where to look, ravi is in full mood, he further scrolls down ” aur yeh, naam padh, kabhi mila bhi hai tu in logon ko?’ he shows him raj Thackerays number (I think). I too am extremely surprised, shocked and happy to see Ravi in full action. The man by now cannot face either me or ravi, he is looking down.then ravi delivers his final dialogue ” ab ja aur ek kaam kar, tu jitna paisa ekkattha karke la sakta hai na, le ke aa aur hum ko madat kar. aur agar koi help nahi kar sakta na toh wapas aa mat”. And trust me guys, i never saw that guy in the vicinity. Ravi again and again assured me that no matter what, you will finish the shoot at any cost.
That day i was wondering, how help comes from all the direction, from unexpected quarters. I actually realized who my real well wishers were and who weren’t. People i thought will definitely come to my rescue never turned up. and people like Nandu, actually left whatever they were doing and came and gave me whatever they could. What a great feeling i have towards these guys i cannot express in words. I finished the shoot, i had money to pay all the technicians i was to pay and we were also left with a few hundreds to go and have our much deserving beer. Of all the people, i should also mention amit parmar and mangesh salunkhi who edited my film for free, Mohit Shetty of Q Lab processed and printed the film for free, Taufiq bhai for helping me get the dubbing and foley effects for literally pea nuts cost, Anita for asking aditya to help me who in turn put me through Mohit. Salim Merchant for doing background for free and all those eighty ninety people whose names run in the end credits.
After the shoot got over, it took me eighteen months to complete the post production work. But now when i look back at it, i think it was all the worth it, as this short film was nominated in the international competition section of the 9th Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) 2006, 6th Indo American Arts councils film festival in new york, 2006, 6th kara film festival – Karachi International Film Festival 2006 and was screened in the indie film club followed by an interview where i met Anurag kashyap as he was the guest filmmaker on the show on NDTV profit, at the Indraprashtha College’s Students International film festival, Kalpanirjhar foundations short film festival in Kolkata which is organised by the max mueller bhavan in co ordination with the goethe Institute, Sri Auribindo college’s Film festival in delhi, The Mocha film club and the Action Bizs monthly screenings. The last time it was screened was at the Avishkar’s film club.
What else would i have asked for. Thank you everybody, i hope i will have all your support even when i make a feature film on the post mortem servants. I am planning one as i continue to look for a producer who has the balls to invest money in this kind of a so called non commercial project.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
hey surya,
did it ever occur to you that your 4-part series on finally completing your short could be made into a full-length feature! isme drama hai, emotion hai, action hai, comedy hai..ha-ha!
bro, jokes apart, i totally sympathize with your struggle and also appreciate your guts for pulling off the impossible..cheers!
surya,
did you read the post ’shiva and other things…’ by mr.mosquito’s struggle? he’s accused the ‘workers’ at factory of being interested in screwing women! ha-ha!
well, really dont know who must have ignored the ‘mosquito’ at factory whilst his ’struggle’, but it must have really hurt him bad to accuse us all of ‘fucking’ big time!!
do you think we should invite him to office and have a friendly chat with him? probably discuss our sex lives with him? kya bolta hai?
^:)^ This, my friends, is the journey – the traveler’s struggle – the truth behind it. THANK YOU, Surya!
Hi Surendra…All the best! That was really inspiring reading your post…I found the Shiv Sena guy part the most hilarious!! Does your friend really have all those numbers?
hey surya.. finaly another post from you.. it’s been a while…you totally rock man!! i mean even with all the struggles you didnt give up…you did anything you could, instead of complaining =d>
“The moment i saw the watch it was close to three am, i got up with a jerk, abusing myself, cursing myself as to how come i went of to sleep without making any arrangement…” .. i can totally relate to that :p
Hi Mos…
Yes he does, and he has friends who are very close to
that gang. Bole toh, apna bhai hain na, bhai… bohot
pohchela aadmi hain… ha ha ha. So what you doing
these days? In case if i can do anything for you,
please do let me know, will try my level best, but
don’t promise.
Wb- Thank you too dude.
Baarish – So sorry, have been busy with work, so couldn’t write before.
Saahil – Where the fuck were you when i was making 0:0 Pm i wish you were around me, am sure you d have added some more flavour to the making and left me with some more memories. Thanks for all the good words, its really encouraging. Now i feel like making a film, as in one of the stories of the film that i want to make, its called ‘Anthology of the Dead’.
surya bhai, awesome conclusion of a post man =D> loved this one, especially ravi’s portion
) saahil, sahi bola re.. fultoo film ban sakti hai!
all 4 parts were very good surya….it was ‘Anthology of inspirations’. Hope to see ‘Anthology of the Dead
And somebody said good film was only about good script…Ha ha ha… But big names and numbers also contributes to a good film. Intersting post,Surya.
Hey Surya, what an awesome story! After reading your story I am sure you’re going to make it..such passion…fantastic…and its always in a crisis we know who our real friends are..:)
Cya.