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Michael Jackson did not sing his famous song “Dangerous” keeping Charles Shobhraj in his mind but dangerous word has become synonymous with the name of Charles Shobhraj.

Charles Shobhraj has been one of the most infamous international criminal since 1970s.

As per news a film is going to be made on the life of Charles Shobhraj and Sanjay Dutt has to play the role of a suave criminal.

After playing the simple, golden-hearted Munnabhai, Bollywood top star Sanjay Dutt is set to metamorphose into a cold, calculating serial killer - a la Charles Shobhraj in a film called ‘Charles and I’.

Made by People Pictures, the racy thriller will be helmed by ace director Prawaal Raman and tells the story of the enigmatic French criminal of Indian and Vietnamese origin who sent the …

Warning: This is not a review. This is an extremely personal letter to K - the protagonist of No Smoking. No one forces you to read, leave alone comment!

Dear K,

Hey! I saw the film they made about you. It’s about your smoking habit, they think. I don’t think so. It didn’t have an email address to reach you so I am posting the letter here.

You know, when I was getting into the auto rickshaw to get to watch No Smoking, a madman followed me. I ignored him and he started to follow all the way into the rickshaw. The other side of the rickshaw was blocked as well. The driver was a bit stumped and took time to react, he thought that man was with me, but I panicked for I didn’t know him. The auto rickshaw man took charge and began hurling the choicest abuses at once. …

PFC was in attendence for the facilitation of the winners on of the poster contest for the Film No-Smoking. John was there to give away the cash prizes worth Rs. 25,000 each to the winners. Elvis where there in person. Zaheer and Manav were represented by their parents. Ms. Masooma Contractor was there on Zaheer’s behalf and Mr. and Mrs. Doshi were there for Manav. Me look really look lika a wannabe RGV with my stupid “muchi” and venting my views like a pro….cring even looking at them….kuch zyada hi footage kha liya…anyways without further ado…..Lets take you to the All Sports Bar at Andheri where it all happened.

Thanks to Vasan, KK, Manjeet & the entire PFC Mumbai Gang.

The video’s below are the same in two different formats. Enjoy!

[display_podcast]

AK …

Finally .. A nightmare of a process is over.. after three months in the editing room, we have it locked.. we missed the Cannes deadline .. we haven’t yet announced the poster contest winner.. we missed a lot else.. so much for telling everyone that it will be a hundred minute film.. I ended making a 160 minute film.. its so painful to cut out your favourite shots.. its so difficult to find objectivity.. I had to frequently get away from the film to find it..had to take week long, sometimes a fortnight sabbatical from it to fall out of love with my shots.. Finally had to ask Vishal to come in and be ruthless with my film.. who do I have to thank for it.. Mira Nair.. still remember what she said to me when I complemented her on her economy of shots , she said ,”oh we …

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 …

Here are two more videos from the final day of the No Smoking Shoot in Mumbai…ENJOY!

AK wraps up No Smoking in Mumbai

…in this video look out for Anurag with his sister Anubhuti, the PFCwallahs - Kartik, Vasan n Manjeet, the unique numberplate of the snazzy car - MCP - K1, Ak in his dark-comedic element, Ayesha Takia, John and Ak with the No Smoking team.

the youtube link: LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUQz6dK_xpM

Ak inspires a prank on the final day of the shoot

… and a unit member’s bike goes missing instantly…(of course he got it back safe..)

the youtube link: LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG3LkDFczX8

Only images..no words..well..just a few…

Video 1 - On the final day of the shoot at Kamalistan studios in Mumbai –

This one is a sample of a scene being rehearsed and shot

(more coming…)

Watch it here:

This is a film made by me using the the clips taken at the Kamalistan location of No-Smoking to enter the elit list of banned film makers in india…..Please do support my dreams. It has nothing to do with promoting No-Smoking but showcase the skills of my fellow PFCiets…….Kartik as the on-looker and Smriti as the shy girl and me as the smoker.

It has all the elements…….a great actor/director/writer/editor/cinematographer trying to showcase his skills…and he is being shunned away….as people want to see stars…. it has cuss words and promotes smoking….

Watch it and ban it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB5j1MFLDmw

Regards,

Vasan

It’s a wrap. The last day of the shooting of No Smoking in Bombay. The team has now flown to Russia (or a neighboring country) to shoot for a few days before returning to Bombay. There could be a fat chance that they may shoot again for a day or two in Bombay after their return.

But as of now… it was the last day of shoot that Smriti, Manjeet, Vasan and Kartik went to. Covering the shoot from their points of view. Smriti with her video cam, Kartik attached like a glue to Anurag, Vasan doing wonders with his still camera - turning it to capture video (and if he isn’t stopped he may turn out sci-fi effects from that camera)… mixing around with the crew and Manjeet doing his thing and capturing the sets with his camera.

But all good things come to an end… and by noon… it …

Butterfly Effect – Part -1

An Iyer boy born and brought up in Mumbai ……does odd jobs….decides to quit everything….eliminates all options and tries to join the film industry….

An Iyer boy born in Delhi….goes on to do more conventional things and becomes an engineer…..destiny brings him to Mumbai…he too nurses dreams of making it as a filmmaker someday.

A boy born in India …goes to the US….into…..software…but his passion is for cinema…takes on to blogging…with a vengeance….

Boy from Banaras comes to Bombay. It’s film reels instead of veins in his nervous system. …..there is Satya in him….and he is a hope for all the Yuva film makers

Cut To

The Iyer boy from Bombay was with the Iyer boy from Delhi, both in awe of the Boy from Banaras……courtesy this boy from the US.

The End

The final 2 days of the No-Smoking shoot in Bombay before the …

Vasan uses his master editing skills to make a small video. It’s what he saw on the sets of No Smoking. Using fast forward and a foot tapping background music… here’s the crew and actors of No Smoking caught on tape… oz Reveiw of Tape : FUN!!!

Manjeet has sent in these pictures of the No Smoking shoot that took place at Velocity. Vasan has given a detailed coverage of the Velocity shoot a few posts down below.

The No Smoking shoot is nearing completion and that’s got many PFC’s bloggers running to meet the fabulous team of No Smoking from Anurag, John, Joy to Rajkumar, Gautam (the ADs) to Rajeev Ravi and the technicians…

You can feel the excitement when you talk to bloggers in Bombay. It’s as if the charged up energy flows right through the cell phone waves from Bombay to Orange County. You wish you could be there experiencing the shoot.

One thing that I would like to mention here is the warm welcome extended to everyone on PFC on the sets of No Smoking. The cordial and delightful atmosphere along with the constant encouragement to PFC’s bloggers to treat the sets of …

Infidelity at Velocity [No-Smoking]

Don’t bother about the title. Just a few months more before we see and hear one of the corniest tributes to contemporary cinematic greats and they would not be complaining.

Juxtaposed against the hustle of the sets where even the Ads were working with the ART department…..last moment instructions being given…lights…..Jr. Artists getting into their grabs. Rajkumar looking a bit tense…he had to leave for Russia and there was a big shoot tomorrow as well.

Rajkumar: I don’t want to leave Anurag alone…….ok others are there…..but I wanted to be with him for tomo…..but even Russia needs to be taken care of….

You have to be there to witness this man’s commitment to the cause and as I discovered yesterday so were the others. Gautam….. and the others. [Sorry, I would have ideally named each and everyone of you]….Awesome team

Ok back to the Juxtaposition. …

Anurag’s favorite part of the film has started. It’s Baba Bengali’s legacy, with much awaited Anurag’s very own Gabbar, Paresh Rawal taking the centre stage! An old deserted mill touching the east sea coast in Colaba is the stage for Prayogshala. Its became a favourite spot for Bollywood after the dock scenes of ‘Hum’ and ‘Agneepath’ were shot. For films shot in Bombay vast silent space with high roof n walls within the city limits is ideal for shooting. The studios appear like a warehouse, even warehouses are used as studios ? A film maker inclined towards horror genre would be excited to have the ‘khundars’ here. But, the sets of No Smoking are very different and interesting, and can only be seen in the film. Just to give an example, there is a kind of magic box, where a person disappears when kept in it. Wasiq Khan’s team came …

sorry guys could not click the “prayogshala” nor “john”..nor “paresh rawal”[sala vasan to pir kiya kya????]……anyways a few which i managed. this does have the Narnia guy too. there is a poster i designed too. hopetodo better job if there is a next time.

“This film has three colors….black …white and shit”……this is what Anurag replied to an actor who was playing a nurse who said the film has black and white…2 colors. I was just eavesdropping shamelessly and have no idea in what context it was but that was just what it was at the No-Smoking shoot at Mukesh Mills, Colaba. Intriguing, wacky, puzzling….and everything else we would like to associate with the magic of cinema and Anurag Kashyap.

As soon as I entered I read the by now famous sign. “No-Smoking in set, Rs.500 fine”. I did not have that kind of money with me and had not got my stock as well. But I will never regret the decision, I borrowed one for he king himself. That was one holy drag I had from Anurag. Thanks…..it never felt so good before.

Back to business. Today was the all important shoot …

Friends!

I don’t think i’ve done such appalling photography ever in my life. Have been resisting from posting these online, but PFC are a determined lot. See, as i posted earlier, i landed at the No Smoking shoot only with the intention of getting a feel of the shooting, milieu and of course to observe AK at work.

Capturing images was incidental…never thought i would be posting anything here ..not even the experience…

So do excuse the terrible pic. quality - exposure, contrast, levels — all wrong.

good thing is, i like my photography unhearsed, candid and raw .. one day when i make my film i want my doP to have lots of work to do. ok.i’ll stop dreaming now…lot of hardwork to do in life…

Hope to post more..when i have work and a decent internet connection — or sooner…who knows.

…

(Warning – no offence to anyone – but my words have potential to be injurious to health! They’re usually honest n sharp!)

….ACTION!

This year I learnt,

‘Films are about people’

–Those who work on the film – crew, cast, everyone who puts in their sweat, blood, grey cells – black hair that turn grey…etc …

– Those who are in the film itself – the characters – their world, their spaces – life as it is lived.

– Those who watch the film or even choose not to.

This is why when Anurag mentioned on PFC that he’d be shooting at Dharavi I couldn’t help but pester him to allow my annoying presence on the shoot for that one day, for how else and where else would I experience film making on all these three levels and that too with a script that’s exceptional at level 2 – that …

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 …