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Few days back I was sitting with a brilliant filmmaker friend of mine and we were discussing casting for his upcoming film. His script is so bloody mature and International that ace filmmakers like Anurag, Shashank or Aditya are excited to get it produced. But the problem is, he is having tough time for casting for the film. We can’t think of anyone else than Irfan or KK. But what if they say no?? What if they don’t have dates?? What if we couldn’t afford them?? I don’t know whether we have shortage of actors or we are not ready to experiment with other actors. Even if we experiment, producer needs star cast.

Now it’s a serious problem. If you are writing a hardcore cult character for your film, we have to count on few faces only, and at certain level even they are getting over used …

I was shooting at the Rhodesia House, a dormitory of St. Peters School, Panchgani. Rhodesia House fits approximately 40 boys under the charge of a matron….this house accommodates the youngest (7 to 8 years) students. Being a boarding school, the admission at St. Peters starts from 3rd Std.
Every time I watch TZP promo on tv, I get nostalgic with the first film(AV) which I made as a director….every frame of little, innocent students reminds me of similar shots taken by me, exploring various dorms of St. Peters.

Being known as European Boys’ School before independence, St. Peters has very glorious past and presence….apart from many governors and business tycoons, our legendary rock superstar Freddie Mercury, from band ‘Queen’ was one of the alumni from the 1958 batch. Bruce Murray (lead vocals)
Victory Rana
Farrokh Bulsara …

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, …

It’s the irony of this field…fanatics from various states come to this industry with a dream. But not everyone ends up being what he wanted to…..some guys who wanted to be a director are cutting soaps as an editor, some who wanted to be an actor are serving water in production houses. As soon as you’ll enter a place like lokhandwala, suddenly you’ll find a very different crowd around you… Its not a typical mumbai crowd….because majority are these aspirant or so called strugglers and professionals are non-mumbaikars. So whether its Fun Republic, Adarsh Nagar, Barista, Mhada Colony. Their talks, gesture, behaviour, appearance everything is lil filmy.

Last week I had to edit a low budget AV for my architect friend….so I hired a small time FCP studio at lokhandwala…I dint realize Jaisa daam vaisa kaam…. the editor I got was a hardcore bengali babu named ‘Jeetdada’….speaks in fullon bengali …

Since the day I started reading PFC…many times i have found various people giving contrast review of the same film..well it’s obvious because it’s a matter of perception or POV etc etc…I’m just trying to make this excercise simple. We have been using this chart during my ad agency days to judge our ideas. This time I’ve altered it with respect to films in html. Lots of times we give rating to a film or an idea or a person “some no. out of 10″. But it’s not defined that what these 10 nos. stand for….so here is a name of every single no. with its definition.

This table is useful for not only critics or reviewers but also filmmakers and scriptwriters. A person can judge the calibre of his idea or work with respect to these nos. This rating system is not bound with the kind of publicity and business …

It was July 2001 I Remember… Yunusbhai (Art Director DCH) came and told me that he spoke to Kalpana and she said “sorry we already have 14 ADs and there is no place to even stand in the office”….He said, “Maine apni taraf se koshish kar li, ab main wapas nahin poochhoonga. Ab tum jaa kar directly PK se baat karo. Thodi uski taareef wagere kar do, shayad maan jaay” I said “theek hai…..Okhli mein sar diya to moosal se kya darna ?”

Well Yunusbhai is a pretty well known Art Director of among the ad film makers, who works with the creams of the industry…..A very senior guy with milky white hair, moustache and White kurta pajama…..I knew Younusbhai thru Harish Amin (Production Manager DCH, Namesake) who lives in my building and am seeing him since my chaddi days but dint have idea what is he into…..One day I …