” Fringe Benefits ”
iView Author: Machchar Kumar
(Mumbai, India)
E-mail: Withheld
” Fringe Benefits “
Few days back, my cousin and I went to “Film City” also known as “Dadasaheb Phalke Chitra Nagari“. It was his first visit there and previously when I mentioned to him that I had to go there to meet a Hero, he was excited to tag along.
So braving all the traffic of Juhu galli to the Western express highway, we finally made it there in a record 1.5 hours. When there is absolutely no traffic, the drive from Film City to Versova takes a maximum of 20 minutes.
As I was waiting for the actor, my cousin was looking at the set in awe, people running around screaming, bright lights, reflectors etc was fascinating for him.
The actor came and suddenly was enveloped by his fans. I just managed to have couple of words before I decided that this was not the right time to have a conversation. I saw the director who was an absolute bastard and said hello to him. This director made me work for 2 months and paid me a pittance for my script and when I asked him for the balance, he said
“Industry mein koi writer ko picture ke release ke pehle poora paisa nahi dete!” When I asked him to give me at least 50% of the amount, he found some other excuse. After that I swore that I will never work for him again. Anyway, this is a different topic all
together.
So after our brief visit, we were on the way back when my cousin started talking about everything he saw.
“Poor assistant directors…they work so hard and they get paid such shit”
I nodded.
He continued. “This industry is like a quick sand right? Once you are in it, there is no escape…either you make it or are destroyed…Poor light boys, they carry so much of weight and earn so little”
I again nodded.
He said “Poor junior artistes, they are the worst off!
How do they live?”
This time I did not nod. I looked at him and rolled my eyes.
“Are you mad? Do you know how much junior artistes make?” I asked him. He shook his head.
I told him to reach for my laptop bag lying in the rear seat and take out a folder. A junior artiste supplier recently gave me the new revised price list fixed by the junior artiste association.
My cousin started reading the document and was surprised! He went through different categories of junior artistes. Decent class men/women, B class, ordinary class etc.
“Nine hundred rupees for one shift plus conveyance and food.” I told him. He was shocked…”What work do they exactly have to do” was his next question.
“Cattle…Just walk left to the right and right to the left and just be part of the crowd.”
“That’s more than what a fresh MBA makes per month!” He exclaimed!
He scanned the document and was further surprised to read that if the junior artiste has to say any dialogue more than 5 words, he would be paid one and half shift extra, if they lip sync for a song, wear a special costume, have color applied on their face for
a holi sequence, they would be getting more than double.
I told him that out of the nine hundred rupees, the suppliers and the production managers have their cut and the junior artistes only get around 70% of the total payment.
So this short bit of conversation got me thinking about junior artistes in general. I have so many stories to tell about them, their life…one article is actually not enough.
Even the film industry has rarely told any stories about these junior artistes. Recently, Shahrukh Khan played a junior artiste in the blockbuster “Om Shanti Om” but it was more gloss instead of real life portrayal of this clan.
The other term widely used for Junior artistes is “Extras”. But they would be offended if you call them an “extra” and demand that you address them as “Junior Artistes”.
How do you get a job as a junior artiste? Well, the only thing you have to do is get the association membership but its easier said than done. The premium that has to be paid for membership is huge and there is a big waiting list.
The junior artiste suppliers here play a big game. If they send all registered junior artistes for a shoot, they would not be able to make too much commission so they include some non-registered members too. The association knows of this practice and they generally don’t mind if they use majority of the extras from the association.
For a non-registered member, the supplier usually pays him/her 200 rupees to 300 rupees, pocketing the rest of 600 rupees. His “malai” is from the non-registered members.
There is a huge misconception that all junior artistes are “available”. Unlike the old days, where most of the junior artistes were aspiring actors hoping to make it big time, now they are mostly part-timers who are looking for a quick buck. From house-wives to
office clerks, most of them come from decent families. Well, there are always exceptions.
During one project where I was the associate director, there was this female junior artiste who started giving me the vibes. She was kind of cute and I knew that all I had to do was take her mobile number and wham bham! But I resisted the temptation and decided against it as I had a steady girl friend and also, as a rule I never get physical with people working under me lest they try to show in front of everyone their closeness to me and everyone will then know that the associate director has fucked that junior artiste and my respect meter goes down. Well, there are some directors/producers who are so shameless that they won’t mind screwing anyone. How they get these women to bed is something to learn!
Next time you watch a movie, do notice that police inspector who arrests your hero, or all the executives in a conference room. They are all junior artistes and if you remember their faces, you will see them in almost every movie.
Your chances of getting more pay as a junior artiste depends on the kind of wardrobe you own. As production companies can’t afford to get costumes done for each and every extra, they usually ask them to get their own costume unless it is a court or police station scene. The better dresses you own, the higher your classification will be.
So what do they exactly do all day apart from walking here and there? They gossip! I used to get jealous of them all sitting in a group and having a great time while I was running around in a mad rush! They sometimes play cards, do business like real estate and other stuff using their mobile phones or just lie down and have a nap. Whenever the director calls for the shot, it takes a little bit of shouting and nudging these junior artistes to wake up from their slumber and come to the spot.
By the way, there are some seasoned junior artistes who have seen much more film making than most of these rookie AD’s. They have more knowledge about shots and camera angles and you need to treat these guys with respect. They can easily spot someone who knows his/her job and who doesn’t. They are mostly veteran artistes, assistant directors who have reached the end
of the lane and have no other option except to work as extras. Lady Luck never smiled on these people or they missed that one big opportunity.
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
@MK,
Interesting, infortmative, behind the scene story about Junior artists.
Though paragraph [During one project ---- ] about your personal experience is bit out of place. ;)
a-Ha the machchar is back!:)
“But I resisted the temptation and….. my respect meter goes down.”
These lines by Machchar deserve to win some award. This guy always makes me laugh.:d
But Machchar bhai to “author” the…ye “iVIEW” me kaise aa gaye????:-?:-?
Machchar, your style of writing is very similar to that of Suketu Mehta’s. In fact I felt that I was reading a chapter from Maximum City. Keep it up.
nice one dear !!
even i m a script writer and looking for a break !!
cheers…
Was offline for 3 days.Just read your post,macchar bhai.
Well written:)>-
BTW,are you the same maccharbhai i mentioned in a W.Kumar post or are you a new macchar:)