abe KK, mazaak mazaak mein jeet gaye!
Two days after we shot the first phase of Kartiks film, I called KK and asked him…yaar mujhe thoda orgasmic sound chahiye tha, tere paas koi desi porn ki cd hai kya…And KK said, sir aapne bahut sahi aadmi ko phone kiya hai. Aisi cheezein PFC mein do aadmiyon ke paas hi milengi, Bombay mein mere paas aur US mein oz ke paas. I told my funny thought about this film to KK and he burst out laughing. I said, saale has mat mera hero teri hi biwi ko bajayega, south Indian husband tujhe hi banna hai. KK said, are sir bas aap order karo, kar lenge!...
As I have been a totally non-fiction director, this was going to be my first self directed fiction…though it was a 3 mins. funny and stupid concept, I wanted my lead to be played by a professional actor…my second call gone to big bro, Surendra Hiwarale….surya bhai has got ears to listen anyones need. I narrated my concept to him and he said, very good Ashish..sahi concept hai…ye film zaroor banana…I said, surya bhai mujhe kuchh strugglers chahiye is film ke liye…and he said alrite give me some time, main kuchh logon ke nos. tujhe deta hoon. On second day he sent me no. of the lead actor from his own film 00.00pm…to whom he hadn’t spoken since long and lost his no. due to cell change…so he had to arrange it through somebody for me which he did…I’ll always owe it to you suryabhai…god bless you!…my Guru and mentor Mandar Kulkarni improvised the concept more for me…made it more funnier!
Now the casting begins..surya gave me no. of Dadhi, his lead. At the age of 40, Dadhi has got such a great skin flexibility that he will just change his hairstyle and he’ll look like 25 and also very intelligent actor…I called Dadhi and he got extremely excited though he was doing a feature as a lead, and said yes to it. But the problem was Dadhi had to fly on the next day of my schedule….on second day Dadhi called and said that his flight got preponed and felt very sorry that he wont be able to do it…but he also said that he kept thinking of my character throughout the night and improvised it so beautifully for me…also he gave me two other actors nos. …one was Ghanshyam and other was Naadi(The constable chasing Imtiaz Gawate in BF)…Ghanshyam was also busy so I went to Naadi on the sets of his play…Naadi too was very impressed with the idea but he wasnt too sure due to his plays rehearsal schedule…he shown me a tiny guy there and said, wo ladka chalega aapko, NSD passout hai…achha actor hai…..but I wanted him so I kept pushing him to try his best…but unfortunately even he had to give up due to his play…but i dint want to give up from taking a savvy actor and I ended up taking the same tiny guy Naadi had shown me…he is Ishteyak Ali, NSD passout and batchmate of Rajpal Yadav…trained classical singer and brilliant actor…directors reading this post, please cast him in your films for big/small roles, he is very spontaneous and superb…I remember, me and KK were at Somens place shooting his short and on way back we met Ishteyak bhai, and day after we had to shoot….to chalo do din pehle hi sahi, casting ho gayee poori, ab production ki taiyaari!!
‘The Lock’….final film!
During the process of meetings and search for cast…I had already decided my location….I wanted to take this subject to a village rather than shooing in a city as I knew many must be doing the same and was sounding very stereotype to me…then I though of a villege called Agashi at Virar, Mumbai…we started searching for row house kind, metal sheet chawls with a common wall…we kept searching for it from one village to another…finally we got a location at Arnala, a fishermen’s village…sometimes in your life you find places or things waiting for you…and it happened to me…my location was waiting for me…
I not only found the chawls but also a loose metal sheet at the common wall as I wanted in my concept…an old, rusty hand pump was sone pe suhaga(refer to the location photos)…the landloard instantly agreed as the rooms were getting used only for storage and to tie sheep’s in the night…those villagers were so awesome that they vacant those rooms and cleaned the whole mess before we came for shoot….it was a big thing for them!
A day before my shoot there was very important screening of my own AV, and PFC party and Hansals place in the night…so I gave my production list to my wife which included all butter paper, black paper, gelatin paper, colored ganji for KK, bulbs, cables etc…meanwhile I kept booking my shoot vehicle and equipments…I reached at PFC party somewhere by 11…handycam was on, drinks, jokes, leg pulling of stars from Feroz Khan to Aditya Chopra…but I was there with some other motive…I had to shoot KK in some stupid pose with goggles on for the shaking photo frame in my film and KK knew it…
We couldn’t get out as everyone was high and break wasn’t possible…so somewhere around 02.30 while joint session started, we came out in the lobby and took some quick poses of KK giving some Rajini and other nonsense poses…soon after the photography session I left home and started working over Kartiks photos…as per my production need, I wanted to make him look like an idiot villager, who has his own stylish photo shot at some smalltime rural photo studio…for that I put a typical tulip farm image behind him and the final photo was ready…after finishing that, somewhere at 4.30 I started washing KKs brand new ganji to make it look old and scrubbed it badly…I slept at 5 and was ready to leave by 7…
Finally It was day of my shoot…I left home at 7.15 and started picking up my cast n crew one after another…first KK then the camera guy, Ishteyak bhai, my DOP…one the way I printed the photo of KK which I had prepared in the night, bought 7 dozens of bananas which KK is carrying in the film…we faced extremely bad weather on our way and also got a call saying it raining heavily at virar…we didn’t have any other options than challenging the situation…at last god saved us…everything went as cool as we wanted…weather, light, the shoot, the actors, surprisingly co-operative, awesome villagers who were doing crowd control themselves…
‘Breaking The Lock’….behind the scenes
I wanted my film to be in tamil which I don’t understand at all…but I wanted it for that hardcore rural flavor…KK was into his best…translating and mugging dialogs, calling Vasan for help, “machcha tere paas 5 mins hain kya…i needed your help…ye translate karna..zaleel aurat @%&@%@*&$”…….we wanted the most corniest dialogs and Vasan been a great help…oh I forgot to mention, KK is also wearing vasans lungi in the film…he was so into the character and enthu that he performed like the new wave in south Indian cinema…also helping the production…the whole shoot was fun…Ishteyak bhai was wearing my boxer shorts and my fathers gamchha…he kept improvising himself…even my brilliant DOP Uday Mohite was always ready with options for every shot…the best was when he made our camera attendant guy Manoj lay on the bed and shot his legs to show the woman “Laxmi” in the film…the shot became so magical that it totally sold my film…finally we packed up before the light goes…I paid the landlords with respect to there kind help and co-operation…god bless that whole village with prosperity and happiness!!
Then everything went smooth…my whole post team at UTV did brilliant job with cuts and CC….my sound designer Aldrin Rodrigues, gave more life to the film…he used the ambient sound of props so beautifully in his music that it created a whole new magic in the film…this film totally belongs to my team…every comment I got for my film by filmmakers on Filmaka.in, goes to my crew…every appreciation I owe to them…every member worked for free with all the passion and love for my dream and cinema….
But before everything else I owe success of my film to PFC…where I met two of my buddies KK and surya who became men behind this film…so its a short film of PFC which won at the first place in the first level of filmaka.in competition…fortunately at the same day when PFC started its short film fest…a small funny concept made it…though many find me stupid writing this post but for me it was my start…after doing so many corporate films, AVs and TV shows, this was my first tiny fiction film…I wish not to get over excited and start preparing for the jury level competition…wish me luck!!
..aur KK theri desiwali cd padi hai yaar….mujhe mere hi ghar mein badnaam kar rahi hai…jaldi leja!!
Tags: Gallery, Image Galleries, Tamil, Teaching Film-making, Video
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
That was an awesome film!
Very well photographed…..
*****
Last Film – VOLVER(6/10)
Good film Ashish. loved all the shaking shots….
Laxmiiiiii!!!!!
=))=))=))=))=))
Amazing, ashish!! Excellent stuff! best of luck for more of these… First time I am seeing KK after having read his posts etc for a long time….looks like he is ready for the RGV stable.. absolutely brilliant guys!!!
Sophocles
brilliant.. fucking awesome..what a film man..putting it as my favourite.. come home..will get you a nice drink.. you deserve it..wowww:)):)):)):)):))=))=))=))=))=))
kya baat hai bhai…mera baburao machal utha..lol!!:):)
Thanx guys…thanx a ton!
aur Anurag bhaiya..milenge kabhi..zaroor…am totally overwhelmed with your comments…thank you:)!
waise hamara chamakta sitara KK kaisa laga aapko:D?
ashish – im so jealous maaaaan … friggin jealous of this film …. i wish i had made it
:-D
the music and cinematography are just tooooooooooooooooooo good …. WOW
You deserved it maaan …
saale KK!…I want you to win the next subject at any cost..meet me tomm…ek garmagaram concept hai tere liye.. ;)
“.aur KK theri desiwali cd padi hai yaar
Ashish Bhai …….Congaratulations :d/:d/:d/:d/:d/:d/:d/:d/:d/:d/:d/:d/:d/
Yad hai aapko ………we have met
Hi Ashish…kamml kar diya aapne… ‘ Dekhan main chota laage ,ghav kare gambheer !’
are Gajju bhaiyaa..kya baat kahi aapne..:d
hum bhi aapki “Holi” ke kaayal hain^:)^^:)^…Cannes Lions jeetne ki bohot bohot badhaai!!=d>
Thanx Shatrughan..
Hey Umesh…thanx yaar…I know three Umeshz…apan kahan mile the yaad nahin aa raha?
yep, likewise… both Aldrin Rodrigues and Uday Mohite did a splendid of job, so big up to ‘em.
i hope you guys will be submitting your ONE clip to the pfc festival!!!
I dont deserve undue credit Ashish… I have not done anything bro…
Buss yun hi filmein banate raho, aur achchi filmein bante raho….
Hum tumhaare saath hai, the, aur humesha rahenge…
In fact i am so sorry, mere apne problems hi itne chal rahe hain ki i was not able to see the making personally… MY loss… and yes… congrats…
Ashish bhaiya, congratulations!!!
Wish you all the best for the next level!
HG: totally agree with you…aur PFC ke liye to by default film banayege..koi shaq nahin!
Surya: Brother I know how kind it was to me…so the credits are totally justified to me and thanx again to you!
Thanx Manjeety!
O teri:o…one thing I absolutely forgot to mention#-o..
Somenda maaf karna yaar!…Even Phoenix has won the entry level contest with me..you’ll find him in filmaka winners image above!l-)
So bro once again my hearty congratulations to you!=d>
For some reason, I kept on waiting for a twist in the end .. which never came
:-w
there was it simply turrtle…I think you dint get it…its a simple film!
yaar…laxmi naam rakhna zaroori tha kya…
otherwise its OK..
AWESOME AASHISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You said it re…..it was a simple film….thats what people should know and understand….SIMPLE….and what a film…..
The entire build-up is comparable to my fav TAMIL DIRECTOR…..K Balachandar….thats his trademark and you have brought it out so well….Blaze Away man……cheers for the victory….and another cheers soon..very soon….will call you……
ashish.. simply brilliant =D> please pass on my wishes to ishteyak as well.. his grin at the end while hiding his face from kk made me grin too.. and kk.. saale.. too good!
I was trying to find your movie on Filmaka.com. (youtube wasnt working) Saala then I realized its on filmaka India.
Great Job Ashish. Saala KK acting bhi karta hai mujhe pata nahi tha.
Laxmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii…. =)) awesome!!!!
That comment was my spontaneous reaction, as soon I finished watching it. Maybe the twist was that there was no twist.
Not meant to criticize though, it really was interesting.
yaar turrtle wo film hi kya jo director ko explain karna pade…:)
thanx yaar Vasan for your kind comparison:)…but yaar am just a tiny kid in front of Bala sir!…btw i’ll surly wait for your call…khoob milega rang jab mil baithenge;)…
striker, saurabh…apne KK ko kam na samjho yaar[-x…ramoji rao ka ubharta sitaara hai b-)!
yaar oz…now am realizing…public ko Laxmi naam se problem hai yaar…kahin mujhe M F Hussain na bana dein!;)
Congrats Ashish and KK machcha the star!! waiting fr the next one.
chinta mat karo dost….dont elevate urself to MFH status yet..:d
looking forward to ur next movie..
Ashish Bhai, bahut bahut badhaai ho! I love the way you have recounted the whole journey,hope it becomes a trend, shape of things to come.
=))=))
“Maybe the twist was that there was no twist.”
YES.
An awesome effort. The idea is to present a simple concept. And, the film has succeeded in involving and impressing the viewer.
Ashish – brilliant.:)>-
) The dialogues, gave us an insight to KK’s character. It was pretty strong, and well suited to the backdrop. There seems to be a Mani/Santosh Sivan influence with the shots (or maybe even the feel of the film), Or is it just me who feels that way?
Cinematography, Music and Editing – Excellent
Acting was really good. Noticed that Isheteyak has just the immortal words ‘Lakshmi’, and the film ends with the magical word. In fact, thats all you hear after the first ‘60 secs’ (and of course the impressive percussion work with that distinctive ‘tabla’ flavour). Which finally brings us to KK! First, what an impressive intro?
A big applause overall. =d>
Dear Ashish, KK, Vasan,
Loved the film. The camera work and the music were brilliant. But the only quibble is that the dialogues did not have a hardcore rural flavour at all. Maybe it wasn’t meant that way, but the dialogues were delivered in a very Bombayish and Brahminical tongue. But again only people who know Tamil will know this.
Venky the Bombayish and Brahminical tongue is my error…..hold me guilty for that….
“Maybe it wasn
Is there a Filmaka india website?
Tabadtob jo man mein aaya bol diya .. ab kaa karein ? Saala ek macchar ..
/:) /:)
Superb Ashish…:d
Very well made…
Hooray!!! I loved this, and congratulations to you!!!=d>=d>=d>
t!, Smriti, Tushar , Thilak, VC, Prashant…thanx a lot guys…wish me luck for the next!
Venky…I chose to do a language in which every letter seems jalebi to me#-o…kala akshar bhains barabar…forgive me sir!:)
Mainak..yes there is..log in to www.filmaka.in
Venky – I was waiting for someone to point this out…. :-)
“Bombayish and Brahminical tongue is my error
aur ek raaz ki baat….KK sorry to disclose it yaar, raha nai gaya:D…
…KKs mom saw this film and disowned him due to his language:))…achha hua KK tu shadishuda nahin hai…:D
shit maan ashish … my mom was griefstricken when she saw this film …. she was like ..”u r well educated …. so nice in academics .. “refined” … software engineer… Why are you playing such a slum dweller role ?? As a mother … (Nirupa roy moment) i cannot and will not like this film….”
and then all i could hear was :(( :(( :(( :((
phew maaaaaaaaan ~X(
Hey Ashsish Bhai …we met while filming the Kartik’s film………………Kya bittu bhaiya bhul gaye…………………;);)……………….Chalo age se yad rakhna
Sorry to have reached this page so late, but better late than never. Hearty congratulations to Ashish and his team. Also to KK. Great job. Also to Somen. Wish you guys all the luck for the next step. This is great stuff:)
Good one! But you know where the man rants at his wife and how you’ve looped it in the background? As someone who speaks Tamil, I’m tempted to follow what he’s saying and quickly realise that he’s just saying the same thing over and over again. Even if that’s deliberate, something about it rankles. Like I said, a small pea of a bother in an otherwise good fun short.
Great job Guys..Ashish..way to go!!
arumbakkum – yeah that has also been done …. the lines have been looped in …. not ashish’s fault … may be i shldve recorded more lines…
the deadline was slipping by and i (or any other tamilian) cldnt be present on the editing table …
lovely film, ashish!! you must also watch ‘delicatessen’ if you haven’t. you’ll love it.
The story is paper thin but yeah it has some awesome acting by kartik krishnan and the background score perfectly blends with the pace of the movie…indeed a superb debut.
absolutely brilliant. Right from the lovely tamil(because I understood it) to the area. The pump, daatoon, and apna chawls… just too good. So nostalgic right now. Been away from bombay three years and don’t know how I’m surviving.
Karthik, Ashish
Would like to point out one more thing. Please forgive my nitpicking (even though I think your movie was terrific).
No slum dweller or rural guy in Tamil Nadu worth his tin sheet dwelling will tie the lungi the way Karthik did. They have a totally different way of hitching it up. Only if you have lived in Tamil Nadu will you know this. Similarly, Biharis also have a very different way of tying their lungi.
Isliye aapko saari galtiyaan maaf hain!
And, Karthik wrong movie to show your mom. Even my mom would have disowned me if I had done the movie. Just makes me wonder how she would react if you did a rape scene in you next!!!
thanks venky -sorry yaar … never stayed in tamil nadu for more than 7 days !!! i wish someone on the sets was there more well acquianted with the tamil rural culture … but its a short yaar … maafi dey do :-D
Mummy watching this film ?? wait till u see my short for filmaka !!!
Ashish, I saw the first cut of this film on youtube.com & was surprised to see the blackout of last 30 secs. Then saw the edited version with subtitles. Liked it very much.
My moment in the film is the top angle shot of KK tying his lungi & we see his pot belly wanting to jump out of the ganji. :d
KK thanx yaar for saving my ass…its all yours:D
Venky: there are lot of continuity and logic goofups venky, more than you pointed out and i know them…lekin ab kya karein, hona tha hogaya…watch for my next;)!
Srinivas, Indraneel, CC, BeingMe, amit : Thanx brothers:)!
A Arumbakkam: Being a hardcore north guy, I dared to do tamil which was alien to me and I knew about these possibilities of language goofups…but yaar fun film hai…bass enjoy karo…its primary objective was to make you smile and I hope it does that…thanx for the appreciation bro:)!
Umesh: are dost maaf karna yaar…tu bhi yaad hai aur pappu bhi;)…milenge zaroor kabhi…btw thanx bro!
Gattu: I was worried for a moment when my wife got that brand new ganji which was actually smaller for KK:-?….but as soon as KK wore it, I realised that It was made for him…in short everything fell on place!
Boy oh Boy …………..This is teenage fantasy win which u have chnaged the backdrop……………………………..;);););););)
Hey Ashish. Damn interesting your film is! Nice camera and lights. Great editing. Make a sequel, man!
Awesome ashish…. no wonder they picked it up for top honours….
and ayya karthik romba pramaaada maaayirukku!!
Utpal idea bura nahin hai yaar…:-?
Thanx Dpac…second line kuchh palle nahin padi:(!
Ashish, it was winner from day one. told u so many times. isnt it ?
n yes why not a sequel..KK in revenge mood…will be damn funny!!
Laxmi…….. :d :d :d :d
awesome, brilliant… loved it.
second line for striker ashish..
mebe u need ur interpreter vasan here for help :-)
not striker , i mean kartik as in KK
this film of yours looks very simlar to a spot on tv..i dont quite remember what was it about ..but instead of a guy screwing another’s wife…it was about a peeping tom …similar shots of a guy brushing with a ‘datoon’ …and then waiiting for girl if i remember correctly to enter the bathroom ..and then we get to see the peeping tom traits in him,..i cant remember other shots…it had this actor, i am forgetting his name NSD guy , someone had even written about him on PFC..i had first seen him in a movie called divya drishti or osmething…
being a creative director in ad agencies…I never saw any such TV spot yaar…and as far as datoon or peeping are concerned..they are very common shots, used and abused in lot of B/C-grade films….so resemblance is quite obvious…
else its a very simple film, got very common shots woven in a funny story…enjoy it!
dont get me wrong ashish ..i really liked wat u have shot ..but my firsst reaction i got this deja vu feeling ..and i remembered that spot ..where this guy is brushing his teeth just the same way near a hand pump and waiting for the girl to enter the bathroom , he looks back just the same way …and then theres this compartment from where he peeps into ..a smilar tin shed…now i thought u might have been influenced by that …actually i was more interested in knowing what tv spot was that , because i cant remember properly.
AJ, your full name is Amarjeet?
ok i remember the mame of the actor ..it featured dibyendu bhattacharya
never heard of it aj…but now am eager to watch the thing you are talking about!
nope machar ..i am not amarjeet
please do and let me know also ashish …and i again add i may be completely wrong …and i really enjoyed your film .gr8 going!
hey ashish,
got to see this film thru gajraj.
It’s awesome man! fantastic!!
Was happier to when i saw that Vasan had written the tamil dialogues!!! couldn’t stop laughing!!!
The thing about your DP using the camera attendant for laxmi’s leg totally reminded me of something I
had done in my commercials abroad! Funny.
Look forward to seeing more beautiful stuff!
cheers!!!!!!
Kartik Vijay
Thanx a lot Kartik!!
am elated to see how many people saw this film after being recommended by Gajraj bhai…and after seeing such an inspiring response, its becoming very important for me to win the next level and make some thing as good as or better than this film…
expectations are high…am lil nervous but encouraged…wish me luck!
Hi. Good one. By the way, tried to look up your film on Filmaka India website. It was not there. Don’t they display the selected films? If there is a specific link, do let us know.
Thanx rocks…you should try on www.filmaka.in ….and got to submissions, type ‘The lock’ in the search box!
or try
http://www.filmaka.in/watchvideo.asp?id=BF736C73-5027-4672-9281-89D4220A9041
you rock, man..KK you rocks, Kartik keep gud work goin