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Hey everyone…since you all have become essential part of our team…I need to share this with all you at PFC…YESTERDAY…was a very big day for all of us…it started on a great note with me reading TA’s review on Black Friday…after I informed you guys that anurag is in Patna, I ask SMS him to check PFC for TA’s review…five minutes and he calls back…what are you saying…he goes…where are you…I go…I am at fame Adlabs…watching audience reaction…it’s interval…in the first show…but you were suppose to be in PATNA…I inquire…I missed my flight…I overslept…he informs me in a disappointed tone…I am coming in five minutes, I go…I run…my five minutes turns fifteen…I am at fame…I call AK…where are you….inside the theatre…how did you get in…I bought the tickets…how do I get in…as I did…I buy tickets for the next show… check the box office…45 percent is the first show …

I still remember getting that call from AK…to come to TAJ LANDS END…some time in the afternoon…for the narration of the script of BLACK FRIDAY…Great…will be there…some time in the afternoon…We all are seated in the conference hall…Arindam Mitra, ChanderMohan Puppala, Anurag, Dev…I can’t recall if there was anybody else…we just wait for Mr.Sudhir Mishra or Sudhir sir as everybody calls him fondly…to join us…he comes in…greetings are exchanged…a few jokes cracked…and the narration begins…three hours of spell bounding narration…with just one break in between…a much required tea and smoke break…Anurag goes through the last page…narrates the last line…closes the script…looks towards all of us…there is few seconds of silence…then Sudhir sir goes…it’s brilliant…you have nailed it man…Arindam is more than happy… ChanderMohan is too… they know they all have nailed the script…Anurag is not sure…asks them again…they repeat the same…He smiles…he is sure…he has nailed the script…there is only …

15TH Jan… 7.30 am… I spring up from my bed… I do that often…why…I haven’t been able to figure out… Satish wishes ‘good morning’…I respond…I am sharing the room with him…he orders tea for both of us…I look out of the window…it’s drizzling…wasn’t expecting that…I go back and cling to my bed…just for few minutes…just for few…was it just few minutes or…I hear Satish ‘uttho…cahi aa gayi…’ I turn…open my eyes…flabbergasted on what I see… fuck…There she is just pouring tea…standing couple of meters away from my bed…looking beautiful…‘good morning’ she goes…fuck fuck fuck…oh god…no god…I didn’t want her to see me like this…early morning…straight out of bed…all messed up…not minding my personal belongings… …guys don’t…early in the morning…no body wants to be seen like that…at least I don’t…she smiles and leaves…I am left wondering…did I respond to her good morning…I don’t remember…did I…I am not sure…I am definitely …

It’s 10th of January, amidst preparation for next day hectic shoot I am informed that I have to leave for TASHKENT (UZBEKISTAN formerly part of USSR) the very next day to overlook the preparation and line up the shoot there…WHAT???…Yeah right…tomorrow…8 PM flight to Delhi and to TASHKENT the very next day, replies our line producer Mr. Inderjeet Chadda, in a very matter of fact tone. I go ‘But I had no prior information about leaving this soon, I need time to prepare myself for the trip!’…. And please carry warm clothes (very warm) as it is snowing heavily there and the temperature there has dropped to –10, again very matter of fact…end of discussion…Period!
WARM CLOTHES???? A term that I haven’t heard since I left Delhi seven and half years back. In Bombay you don’t need warm clothes…Nope…not any time of the year…not for seven and a half years …

It’s nineteenth December…My pre set mobile alarm goes off at 6.30 am…no idea since when it has been yelling at me to get my ass off the bed…I look at the watch…it’s gleefully announces 6.35…just a thought of crosses my mind …can I catch another ten minutes …NO…fear creeps in…what if that ten minutes turn out be an hour…NO…Boy we are shooting at DHARAVI, Asia’s biggest slums…can’t afford to be late…have to reach rather early…loads of thing that needs to be coordinated…just the thought of it…makes me jump… jump up from my bed.
7.25 AM I am auto rickshaw headed for seven bungalows, Andheri…it’s five minutes from where I stay…have to meet Prashant, another assistant director at 7.30…every shooting day I hitch a ride on his museum headed bike, he loves the bike, I love the ride…in that five minutes auto rickshaw ride to seven bungalows, thoughts cross my mind…what day …

Hi Oz, Sangeeta and other cine fanatics at the PFC…I know am late in posting the details about my experiences on the sets off NO SMOIKING due to lack of time and somewhat crazy shooting schedule of ours…but I am well aware that the insights is being provided to you each day by AK and the TRIDEV’S (Manjeet, Kartik and Sumeet) from PFC.

Day before morning we completed the twenty-fourth day out of the stipulated forty-five days of the shooting schedule…almost sixty-five percent of the film in over.

Twenty- four days of shooting has been quite something…it’s been crazy…it’s been exciting…it’s been exhilarating…it’s been enlightening…it’s been frustrating…it’s been chaotic…it’s been a roller coaster… it’s been sleepless…. in Bombay… but most of it has been a pleasure… what the heck…we have completed sixty five percent of the film in twenty-four days…and completed the way we wanted to do…the way AK wanted …

Thanks OZ for making me part of PFC, anurag forwarded me your mail…will try to write as much possible about my experience on the sets of NO SMOKING…