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So it happened yesterday evening before the formal release of Johnny Gaddar the much awaited film of the year. Though Sanjay Routray the executive producer had already told me a day in advance about the screening I was totally unsure of whether I would be making it or not because of my commitment towards ‘Horn OK Please’

The best coincidence was Sanjay celebrating his birthday today along with the films release… so there were two reasons for the entire team of Johnny Gaddar to celebrate. The screening went of well and I would not write much about it for three reasons one because Sriram will always feel that my views are slightly biased towards him (which most of the time they are and they will be always, except when it comes to his scripts), secondly because his brother Sridhar Raghavan will continue to feel that I am not to be seen …

Hey Guys,

Yesterday was great day… as i got to see a wonderful film after a long long time… and it also gave me reason to be here again as it would have been great injustice not to have mentioned this film to my pfc buddies. The film is a marathi film, directed by Gajendra Ahire, a young film director, maybe lesser know but alreadt hs more than eight to ten films ti his credit.

Infact I should thank Ravi Kale who also plays the protaganist for inviting me for th screening at Ketnav, Bandra. So the film is a simple film, according to me, even better tha ’shwas’ for many reasons… for me watching ‘Shwas’ was like watching a hindi film, as it was for the first time that i was seeing a marathi film that looked like any other hindi film…

But Gangot or relatives/relation talks about what a farmers life …

After I had left the theatre a lot of volunteers including Wiebke the very efficient Artistic Director of the festival came and met me and ensured not to worry… and i will have a show no matter what… nothet of their volunteer Jessica Cope with her calm and composed demeanour just said it all and assured me that they will do anything for but will ensure that I have a screening…

I didnt feel like going inside the metropol as I knew i couldnt have been able to concentrate… instead I decided to make use of the happy hours… Marie Kaplan has this knack for making superb drinks… I hit the bar… and i hit it till Barbara and Steve made it back to me.

I think the happiness of having Steve come all the way from Wolverhampton just to see my short film and our subsequent first meeting also didn’t make …

I was so excited that i was gonna get to go and present my film at the 4th Bollywood and Beyond film festival… Since it was also my first long flight a lot of preparations were gone in ensuring i go well prepared… clothes, perfume, shoes and most important of all the e - ticket. Something that i was gonna use it for the first time…

The flight was a connecting one and it was scheduled to depart at 3:00 Am in the morning and we were supposed to report three hours well in advance at the airport. Now being a non frequent flyer like a good boy I reached the airport in time… i had an experience of flying to Oman for the shooting of a Song for RGV’s ‘Naach’ and one which i had for the Karachi International Film Festival last year…

My newly married friend Rutesh and Sudhir …

Halo Stevey/Halo All,

And I cried while watching Dancer in the Dark… my god.. the film gets more and more serious and dark as it progresses… and that mother fucker of a cop who cheats on her? Bastard, asshole, chutiya ka rishtedaar sala… at the same time loved her friend kathy and jeff who initially made me feel is gonna rape her… see how bollywod has conditioned my thinking as to depending upon the kind of personality Jeff has… as in bollywood he d get to be the only Villian or a rapist for that matter… though I am gonna watch the film again… i thought it was very slow paced and dragging in the begining, but as it progresses its just grips you…
I have had two blind friends and i cannot just but keep thinking about them as I just kept recalling my stay as a roomate with this …

It was a little more than a week back or so, I was standing near my building that my cell phone rang. I remember it was also the ‘haldi’ ceremony of one my frieds who was about to get married. I picked up the phone ‘Kartik Krishnan’ flashed the name on the windscreen as i received the call…

Me - Hey
KK - Whats up?

General sweet nothings of 5Ws and 1H were exchanged as KK directly came to the point and asked me as to where I was? “Near my building” was my reply… “Come lets meet” are u in a mood to have a drink? I was, as i most of the time am… and we decided to meet in this middle market bar opposite Vikhroli station…

I was meeeting KK after quit some time, an it was really nice to see him… As the session progressed and we talked talked …

Thanks yaara,
Lets talk about Dirty pretty things today…. To start with, I wanna tell you that I am gonna watch it atleast two more times first to learn how the director has managed to design the pace of the film which is so fantastic.. and secondly how beautifully he has managed to weave the relationship of Okwe and Senay… As i always felt that there was so much love between them in the film. Some moments I want to study especially… say when he once tells her that I will be leaving, and she though jocularly asks him, but who will cook for me but means it seriously is so beautifully picturised, see a director should have a command over these little nuansces and should be able to make it more interesting Visually…. which Stephen Saab managed… Another scene is when he discloses to her that I come here to …

I would have never ever been here had it not been for Kartik or striker as we all know. He came to meet me at the Factory as a guy from the US, before that he had tried many times but was not allowed to go in. That particular day he managed to come in the basement and somebody just told me that this guy wants to meet Ramuji. And knowing RGV it was impossible for kartik to have met him. So instead it was the guy who imitates RGV, and that was me.

Working under a successful director can really fuck your mind… as at times we forget the difference that the whether your boss is the boss or you are who he is… cut to…

Kartik meets Surya, RGVs chief, associate or for that matter just an AD. Hazaar designations that we have amongst the struggling actors circle. I …

It was holi, I was supposed to be playing colors and spoiling others faces too with gulal and all sorts of colors we could think off. But, destiny had altogether different plans for me… it was on the third afternoon, I was getting too bored sitting at home. The hype and hoopla and the people and media’s reaction to the film had almost settled in and I did not have anything else to do. I knew only one person will get me out of loneliness and boredom was Ashima, and without giving it a thought, I just messaged her what the plan was and whether we were meeting that evening or if she had another plans?

Cut to promptly comes in a reply “Dude tonight we are partying, come to our house by nine” that was it. OZ had forwarded me a mail that he received from the Artistic Director of …

It was december 1999 that i passed out from Jamia Millia Islamia, within no time being a mass communication student and that too from a reputed institution like jamia, it was not too haerd to finad a job for myself. Though lookintg back, i think that i would have as well started directing instead of working as an AD for the last seven years. But there was a greed and hunger to perfect the skill before i ventured on my own, though even as an AD i think i have learnt a lot in terms of direction. The work experience never goes waste. All thanks to Umesh Padalkar my first director whom i assisted on a serial called ‘kagaar’ that was aired on Sahara Channel, later on of course i cannot stop but mention the directors under whom i was groomed and trained as an assistant director, and they are …

It was around twelve noon that i was working on that script evolving the mystery woman, the writer has just reached her office, he was visiting there for the first time that my cell phone blinked thus forcing me to get out of my chair and viewing the message. ” First screening for Big B and the crew at yash raj at nine pm”, the message was from sheel. I was so excited to read that, as i too was going to see the print as i had been missing from the mixing scene for the last four five days.

Immediately, i stopped working on my script, replied to sheel that boss will be there. I had loads of time so i decided to catch up with some friends before i went for the screenings. I tried calling Ashima, wrote a feww scraps to kops and other friends, had my …

hey there,
Had been too busy… busy dating this mystery woman, before that chasing her… guys i think i am in love… uske mere zindagi main aane se main Nishabd hua” ha ha ha. This is what i thought the writer protagonist of my script that i am working on will be heard while writing on his writing pad…. In the mean time, dad in assal marathi tells me, ” ramu has been accused of lifting the title of Nishabd from somebody else” i feel like laughing. But I having being assisted RGV i could totally understand my dads concern for him as well as me, afterall somewhere i too am associated with it in small little way. I think in my mind (as you can think aloud too) that i wish dad could understand the politics of film Business. I think of RGV making Sholay and how unfair the media …

Hey guys,
Let me share one more thing with you. Today we had the music release of Nishabd at the J. W. Mariott and it was fantastic. The whole event was broadcast live on Red Fm and the occassion was graced by some great filmmakers, Technicians and of course by the lead start cast of the film Mr. Amitabh Bachchan and Jiah Khan along with Mr. Pravin nischal from the Adlabs and of course the Big Boss from Red FM.

Though the song ‘Rozana’ subg by Amitji and composed by Vishal Bhardwaj has the taken the nation with a storm, take light is no beyond as all the college crowd and youths here in Bombay have accepted ‘Take Light’ as a part fo their lingo. It was a gala affair, for the film as well as the very beautiful Jiah who was dressed in Black and was stunningly sexy and beautiful. …

Guys,
Apologies for not writing for so long. Have been too busy with the last minute postproduction job on the film. Yes, Jiah was the first person to start dubbing; we got her and other actors dubbed at Sri Lakshmi Studio at the Laxmi Industrial estate. I remember my first meeting with Jiah in Ramuji’s cabin. From there to now I must say guys Jiah has proved me wrong again and again and again. Initially I felt, “yeh phirang itne heavy accent ke saath hindi kaise manage karegi?”, but there she was, on the sets always rehearsing her lines with me till she got it right. She put in her heart and soul while we were shooting. One day I remember she fell ill, Sheel had to take her to the hospital where she was put on a bottle of wine, oops… just kidding, I meant to say glucose. RGV shot …

Today was Sunday, as usual I had a late night yesterday, partied till three am. It was Abhisheks Birthday, so after having a couple of rounds of drinks at POP TATES and some rounds of songs sung by Swanand Kirkire, we decided to shift location. And that being one of my favourite abodes of Kops, Ashima’s, Hemant’s and Ronnie. Abhishek had already left as Partho and gang were waiting to give him a surprise at his house. I was suppose to come back home as I had to give some money to Dad as he was leaving for our native place. Unfortunately the money cheque wasn’t clear, and by the time we were supposed to leave Ashima as usual knowing that it was not a good idea for me to go home in that state took me to their lovely abode. I had a dubbing in the morning, some corrections …

Its around 1:20 am, had good Sunday as compared to my usual ones. I was home the whole day and since we were dubbing on and off for Nishabd, I had lost on many films to catch up with. Evening I decided to catch up on not one but two movies. They being Traffic Signal and the other being Parzania, and I saw them back to back. So from eight pm onwards till now I was busy watching these films. Having worked with street kids myself when I was working with Support, an NGO working with the street children, drug addicts and Commercial sex workers, it was easy for me to relate with the film and the life these people lead. Just that Madhur summed it up in one location and that is Traffic Signal.

But what has really inspired me to sit up wide-awake at this hour and write is …

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 …

By now the shoot was happening with full speed. Amit Roy and gang were bang on in synch with RGV’s supersonic speed of shooting. The production department, the art department, direction department, in fact all the departments were superb and extremely efficient under Sheel’s leadership. Plus having RGV at the helm of affairs ensured that there were no fuck ups or less fuck ups. But just tell is there any shoot where there are ‘NO’ FUCK UPS? Adiyta my Intern, in spite of me telling him not to carry hajjar papers in his hands continued to do so. Aparna’s assistant Sachin, later on her jilted lover as we used to tease her, I mean who had come on the shoot as her assistant ended up being somewhere in between. A very talented guy, he was with Praveen now Vishram Sawant of D and RISK. He assisted him and god knows …

[ UPDATE : Attached is a video clip of Surya's short film ]

I was majorly disappointed with me not getting a morgue to shoot my film. My experience so far was that of people looking at me in a weird manner, as if they were trying to ask me, have you lost it??? The day Ramani and me saw the post mortem both of us were really stressed out. Though by now I was not too sure if I really wanted to do this film. Kodak films had agreed to sponsor three cans of 16 mm film for free, all thanks to Prasad Gupte and Rajesh Jiandani who believed in my project and my vision. But still I was not happy to compromise on the location of a morgue and both the Shivaji Medical and JJ Hospital authorities refused me flatly. I didn’t know what to do now.

One fine …

The shoot had just begun, now there was a panther, a steadicam, a jimmy jib and all other basic equipment that is there for a film shoot. Me and Abhishek had tried our level best that we could to ensure that there is no fuck up from the direction team’s side. The schedule had already gone for a toss while we were in Bombay only. Abhishek kept working on it time and again, and guys I mean it literally. We did not know what was in his mind and to get it out is in itself a subject one can make a film on. So we kept following him asking him what scenes we were planning to shoot? After first days shoot, he instructed abhishek to concentrate on making a schedule that needed Amitji. So he just followed what he had asked us to do. The only problem that he faced and which probably got him …