Another Struggler, Another Story…
This started off as a reply to Shitji’s thought-provoking post “Each One Help None”. Then I realized it does precious little to contribute to that string, so it might serve better as a post unto itself. Afterall, I spent an hour pouring my heart out here. Oh, and as a disclaimer, I name names.
Let me share an anecdote of my struggles with you all…
A friend of mine, who worked as a Production Manager and Events Coordinator in Mumbai was back in Vancouver for a while. As I don’t want to reveal her real name, lets call her “Sita”.
While here Sita got the opportunity to coordinate a fashion show for “Crossover”, an Indian fashion boutique here in Vancouver co-owned by Suniel Shetty and a family out here (which by sheer coincidence happen to be old family friends of my father).
As Sita is an old friend she is well-aware of my background and my passion for Indian cinema. She tells me that Suniel Shetty is going to be in Vancouver for 3-4 days, and that she has access to him as she is putting this show together. I had 7 weeks to create a concept that would appeal to him, write up a screenplay treatment, character sketches, and a formal proposal pitching the film.
We pooled our resources, a bunch of us got behind this concept. We brainstormed, came up with a good script, and put together a great proposal.
I met Mr. Shetty twice. Once on the day of the dress rehearsal. I was told just to go introduce myself and chat with him, you know, build a rapport with him. He was approachable, we chatted for a few minutes. Then he turned his attention from me to the rehearsals. Fair enough, afterall that’s what he was there for.
The next night, after the show, I used another connection (Avi, his head of security is another old friend of mine…I had written and directed several episodes of a few TV series he had acted in) who got me right to him.
There I was, proposal (7 weeks of hard work) in my hand. The opportunity of a lifetime, the chance to pitch to the head of “Popcorn Entertainment”, a certified superstar. And to make things that much better, his head of security introduced me as a prominent Canadian writer/director. Could things get any better?!
Suniel was very tired, and irritated that the show didn’t go nearly as well as was expected. To his credit, he didn’t let that affect our conversation. He was nice, he was patient. I was straight forward with him.
“Suniel-bhai, I have a proposal that a group of us have worked extremely hard on. It’s for an out-and-out commercial hindi film and I think you’ll find it very very interesting. If nothing else could be good reading material on your flight out, or it could be the start of a blockbuster film from “Popcorn Entertainment”, you never know.
There, I did it. I was confident, calm, articulate. I did it. My friends helped create an opportunity of a lifetime and I seized the moment! I did it baby, I did it!
“Yeh Avi ko de do, woh dekh le ga”.
“Avi ko?” That’s all I could say. What I was thinking was “Avi bhi to saala meri tarah struggler hai. Avi to Vancouver mein rehta hai, isko dene ka kya fiada??”
“Haan, Avi will take care of it”.
I turn to Avi “Bro we’re friends, I respect you, but you know I gotta get this into his hands directly”
Avi: “Yaar don’t worry about it, I’ll take care of it”.
What the fuck is going on here?? Just take the damn thing already!
“Suniel-bhai, please if you don’t mind I’d feel much better handing it over to you directly. Avi’s my friend, I can see him anytime. Who knows when I’ll get the chance to see you again”.
Suniel: “Avi’s with me all day tommorow. He can get it to me, so don’t worry”.
Ok, maybe this isn’t so bad afterall. I can trust Avi. He’s my friend. He respects me, my talent and my passion.
So I handed the proposal over to Avi, and thanked Suniel before walking off. My wife and friends sat at a table nearby, anxious to know what was going on in those 5 minutes. I told them that I gave the proposal to Avi, Suniel said to, and that Avi will make sure Suniel takes it with him.
I could see my wife’s heart sinking. I couldn’t make eye contact with her, so I looked over at my friend. He called it right there and then. “Well, it was worth a shot. But I doubt that proposal leaves Vancouver”.
I wanted to say “It will, it HAS to”. The words just didn’t come out.
The following afternoon I called Avi. Despite being on 3 hours sleep he greeted me rather cheerfully. “Tony Bhai, director-saab, kya ho raha hai?”
“Yeh to aapko mujhe batana padega Avi-bhai ke kya ho raha hai. Woh file Suniel to de di thi na?” (I felt like a true businessman with that last line…)
“Suniel? Uska poocho hi mat yaar, we were up all night for the afterparty, then I had to drop him off at the hotel at 3am. At 7am I went back to pick him up as he had a few interviews to do here and then he was flying out. Bas abhi abhi main usko Airport mein personally drop kar ke aaya hoon…”
“Haan Avi that’s all good na, but woh file ka kya hua yaar…”
He told me to come meet him at his house in an hour, we’d sit and talk. So I went. You can all guess the rest of the story… There was so much going on, they barely had time to eat breakfast, they’re lucky to have made it to the airport in time and not missed the flight…”
Then I saw it. The file was sitting under Avi’s coffee table. I felt sick. But I decided not to show Avi anything but appreciation. I was extremely disapointed, but I knew deep down inside that there was only so much Avi could do. I asked him “Did you mention it to him”. The normally cheery Avi turned serious. “Yeah, a few times. But he said he didn’t have time for it”.
What can you do right? Almost 2 months of hard work, meetings, collaborations, writing, time away from everything else, the sacrifices and all… but what can you do?
Maybe aiming for Suniel Shetty was aiming too high… maybe he was too big for a little man like me. He has directors like Priyadarshan and others he could work with, why SHOULD he give an outsider like me the time of day?
Maybe there was something wrong with my pitch. I didn’t give him the right “hook”… Afterall I didn’t really tell him anything about the story at all…
Maybe the timing was all wrong… he was tired after the show. He likely didn’t have film production on his mind…
Or maybe, just maybe, I’m shit out of luck. I was given the opportunity, I gave it my all and it just wasn’t good enough. Hey, at least I can I say I gave it a shot, I tried my best, even if it wasn’t good enough.
Ok, so what now… what would YOU do…
Do you just give up? Or do you let some time pass, let the wounds of your disapointment pass, dig down deep and give it another go.
Let me ask all of you. What would YOU do?
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
tony, 3 words: find another producer. suniel is no superstar and he’s got more attitude than madonna on pms. just take a look at his interviews. half the time he sleeps thru them and acts like he doesn’t care. if it’s meant to happen, it will happen. but there are way better companies than popcorn entertainment, who would rather thrive on making crap like padmashree laloo prasad yadav and lipsyncing with celina jaitley in the desert than look at a good idea for what it is. and another piece of advice… get used to that kind of behavior from the so-called “big shots”. unfortunately, it’s only the beginning. all the best to you bro…
btw.. thanks tony, for taking names. this is what we could use more of. let’s not hold back on taking names if you’ve had a bad experience (or even a good one for that matter). i’m not saying talk trash about them.. but at least let your angst be known on PFC where we, as authors and commentators, can have an objective point of view towards what transpired.
Let me tell you I am just a IT guy working in US and cant even tell you what would I do. You are way too high up there for me. But beleive me I know one thing in life if it has to happen it will happen. Sometimes in a strangest way possible. Take this as a challenge, try meeting as much people as possible. As Striker said get used to all kinds of attitudes and behaviours. Shed your inhibitions and at times learn to be shameful and there is nothing wrong with that. Keep doing this until you meet ur kind of guy who will do it….If nothing else you will learn something along the way.
And last but not least dont judge Sunil shetty or for that matter anybody in this process. It happens forget it and move on, your goal is to acheive what you want not to sit and analyse what people did to you.
Shawshank is quite right!
And i agree with Striker. There shouldnt be any hesitation. It makes it interesting & informative to read.
Some may say its gossip. I say any info is good in this closed industry.
cheers
Send it to the RGV factory. He’s a prolific film maker and you got more chances there. Sunil Shetty’s popcorn entertainment hardly makes 2 or 3 movies in a year.
Look for Adlabs, K Sera Sera, PNC communications etc. There are quite a lot of corporates in the industry today and something will click.
ATB.
I don’t think Sunil Shetty was unfair in anyway. ( I am no fan of his and wouldn’t watch his movie unless told it is worth it by no fewer than 10 different guys ).
I am sure every 2nd person who meets him says he has got a story or a script or he wants to be a actor and that it is worthy of his time,effort and money.
On the same note, without seeing what Tony has got, maybe he has got a great script. But expecting this whole thing to work out was a bit naive….
For some reason we all, including yours truly, think we can make movies whereas we don’t think same about other trades.. Wonder why..?
sit down, go into a shell,mull over it,abuse every fucking one and then… bounce back again.new producer, same propasal. another chance,another try, another day…
have you tried sending your proposal to utv or sahara? not sure if it works or not, but worth a try.
Tony,these things r part n parcel of the game. Whatever has to work out, it will…this way or that.dont stop dreaming. N for people like sunil shetty n others,they keep on meeting hundred people everyday n many aspiring actor/ director/ writer.so, may be they r bored. N who knows…. tomorow when u become a big guy,u will have this story to share with hundred others n may be with sunil also!!
I couldn’t help but smile when i read your response Phonenixnu…
”Don’t Stop Dreaming”!!
The reason I smile is that Sunil Shetty was part of a ‘film’ called ‘Dont Stop Dreaming’ and I was shocked to say the least when I viewed the film!
I guess alot of the time the cliche is so true about being at the right place at the right time…or better still, in the ‘right frame of mind’!
I doubt very much that Sunil had even read the ’script’ to this ‘Dont Stop Dreaming’ movie as it’s nothing short of a disaster and i’m amazed at how people manage to find producers for this nonsense!
Maybe Sunil was tired the day he receieved that script too!
I actually like him as an actor, but they all mess up sometime or another.
I mean could he not point you in the direction of his agent or someone who actually would read the script??
Surely we understand that people are tired from travelling, but don’t accept something if its going to be left lying around for god sake!
If he had no intention of reading it, then he could simply say, ”Thanks but I really won’t get a chance to read this”…
What would you have done??
Slapped him and said, ”Main kabhi soch bhi nahin sakta tha, ke tum aisa karo ge!!”
Atleast if he was honest, your hopes wouldn’t have been raised just to come crashing down the next day!
But, sadly we don’t live in an ideal world… and i guess people find it hard to say no.
Just wish they’d realise that it saves alot of headache/heartache by telling the person there and then rather than agreeing and then convieniantly ‘forgetting’ about it.
I guess that’s just asking for too much??
Well, just remeber that one day, when you’re living your dream, a script may find its way to you through a struggler.
Make sure you, unlike some people, give him/her the time of day…:)
This incident actually occured back in December, just days after the GIFA Awards.
The disapointment wasn’t so much that Suniel didn’t read the script, I knew there was a good chance he wouldn’t. But you still have to go in thinking positive and hoping for the best, even if your fearing the worst.
The disapointment was in the build up. This wasn’t a chance meeting, we had several weeks to prepare for it. Nor was I alone, I had a solid group of friends backing me up and help make my way. I went in fully prepared, banking on the fact that had he opened any page of that proposal he would at least know how seriously we were taking the opportunity.
I wanted to share this incident with you guys at PFC because I felt its important for us to share these experiences with one another, and the feelings associated with it.
You think the stars have all lined up, everythings going your way, your confidence level hits an all-time high and then… then you get your reality check, which most often comes in the form of the “brush-off”. What happened to that day is no big deal: It happens to dozens upon dozens of us on a daily basis.
What’s really encouraging is that out of 10 responses (so far) all 10 were totally supportive. That’s awesome guys, and that’s how we gotta be with each other.
Striker buddy I wish it was the begginning… to be honest the begginning was actually much nicer than this…
Back in 2003 (in continuing the tradition of naming names) Lal and Kishore Dadlani, the owners of “VideoSound” (New Jersy based distributors) were very interested in a script co-written by my good friend Manny Parmar and myself. They were open about really liking the idea, but they had just lost a bunch of $$$ on “Kehta Hai Dil Baar Baar” (Jimmy Shergill, Paresh Rawal, Kim Sharma – incidentally this was directed by “Parzania” director Rahul Dholakia”).
The Dadlani’s treated us very well. They gave us quite the fatherly lecture on our budget aspirations (at the time we had estimated the budget as 4 crores) and they had said that was a “no mans land” figure. Either go higher and get some big stars like Saif or Akshay (even if it meant changing our characters as they were written to be in their early 20’s) or drop the budget right down to next to nothing (this was before India’s multiplex boom and thus a detrimental proposition) and totally cut down our risks. They gave us suggestions on how to raise funds, and even offered to provide us with “intent to sign” contracts, basically stating that if this film is made the way it was narrated to them that they’d be willing to distribute it theatrically in over 50 countries worldwide as well as buy the DVD rights at such and such prices.
Unfortunately that opportunity didn’t work out since we couldn’t actually guarantee investors would get their full money back let alone make a profit…unless we actually took VideoSound up on their offers, got the paperwork to present to these people and took them for a ride…something we just couldn’t bring ourselves to do… damn honesty always comes in the way…
As for the search for another Producer, its a tough thing to accomplish sitting isolated in Canada but I am trying.
Over the years we’ve sent proposals (online) to everyone from YashRaj (yes I AM a fool) to iDream to BAG Films (that guy was exchanging emails with me for about 2 months before he stopped responding) to several others. Different proposals for different projects.
The problem is you really can’t “struggle through correspondance”…
If I’ve learnt anything in the past few years, its that no one takes you seriously unless your face to face with something in your hand.
Or if you’ve got a solid contact that will do that for you.
Most recently I’ve sent the synopsis to a fashion designer in Mumbai who apparantly has some filmi connections
Striker: get used to that kind of behavior from the so-called
Good Luck Tony!
I would say you been very lucky so far. And the failures are nothing but lessons for you. It will depend how you will take them. Some people become just like them once success comes to them. Most Creative people & good directors are like that.
And I really like that you are naming everyone. I think more people should do this. Your Blog here has been more informative & usefull for us than the last 100 reviews. I wish more people would come out with stories like this. For some it might be gossip, for me Its a good insight. These stories are as imp to know as technique.
Thanks for sharing your story with such honesty. I wish you good luck!
one writer i worked with met aamir khan…narrated a script…for 3 hours..aamir said he liked it….and will do it …in fact produce it but only after mangal pandey releases…..ab to fanna bhi release ho gayee…..no trace of that script….and trust me it’s one of the best scripts i have read till date
Suneil Shetty!!! WHATS WRONG WITH YOU?
He’s making a show called “THE BIGGEST LOSER”
That’s fit for him, not a script on which you work so hard.
Don’t give up bro!
Cy, its not often that hindi film producers are in Vancouver. That’s why I had tried my best to make the most of this opportunity…
Thanks for the encouragement man.
Vasan…Man I *really* feel for your writer friend… damn that’s a long wait… I hope he’s contacted other producers…
Well, Once there was a producer from South who came here and was ready to make a movie with me if I could get Suniel Shetty for the project. I thought that would be easy but the hitch was the producer said his budget was only 30-40 lacs for Suniel…
I called up his secretary and told him all that the producer is ready etc etc and I need an appointment with the star. He point blank asked me what our budget was for the actor…I told him that let me first narrate the subject and if he likes it then we will talk about it. He insisted that we tell him what’s our budget. I said around 30-40…The seccy told me that Suniel charges around 90lacs to 1 cr for a movie and nothing less…I told him that we don’t have such a budget but I told him make that decision after reading the script. He was downright rude and refused. I met bigger super stars and still have good rapport with some(even if they don’t do my movie, they were nice)…
I don’t buy the “they meet thousands like you” shit…All it takes is being nice…I am sure thats not hard to be…It doesn’t cost anything to be nice too…Busy? I am sure I would have waited even for a month or two or even gone whereever he was if he could give me 10 minutes…
I really do beleive that there should be a forum where the producers, directors can logon and search for the scripts people have written.
I personally beleive that anything which a person does “under no compulsion scenario”…brings out something very creative (read noteworthy/different).
That is why if I notice that a regular non-filmi guy has written a script (or written or composed a song, directed a short film)…It makes me interested cause…the guy has gone ahead and done something for his PASSION…and beleive me there arent even 1% things in life we do with PASSION …
There are lot of voices…which never get heard.
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[Admin Note: Deleted because it is a duplicate comment. Shailesh, please do not cross-post comments on PFC. All passionate readers read all the comments ;)]
MK, thats the best reality joke I have heard for a long time. Imagine Sunil Shetty asking for 1 khoka for a movie.
hahahahahahahaha. How did he arrive at that figure? :d:d
muzzy.. why.. with his stellar acts in lakeer and khel of course..!
Sunil Shetty is a part of many successful films. He also has solo hits to his name. But that was long ago. He is also the favorite of many directors like Priyadarshan, Dhamrmesh Darshan, J.P Dutta, etc. As a producer he has a big hit, Bhaagam Bhaag. Take him seriously. He is a good and successful actor.
Justin John, I DID take his seriously… very seriously… had he done for me in 7 minutes what I did for him over 7 weeks then maybe he’d have a good project under consideration. So then the question isn’t whether or not we take him seriously, the question is when will people like him learn to take people like US seriously…
There are many production houses in Mumbai that are in need of scripts. Why only Popcorn ? Maybe he does not need you. If you need him then you must follow him. I have a friend who never wrote a script. He had written only synopsis’ of the films. He met many for producers for 1 year and then only one producer liked one of his synopsis. Now he is writing the script and at the same time getting paid. I suggest you meet more producers if you believe in your script. They will pitch the actors.
Sorry I used the wrong sentence “they will pitch the actors”.
http://breakingin.net/tswpitching.htm