Gulaal : moves in to the final leg of production
iView Author:Gajendra S Shrotriya
(Jaipur, India)
EMAIL:gshrotriya[at] yahoo [dot] com
Title: Gulaal – moves into the final leg of production
2 days ago I had missed to catch the making of Gulaal at Chomu Palace.
I had reached there at Chomu Palace but to be told that the unit packed off around 4’O clock in the morning. All through the way I was excited about meeting Vasan and AK. Excitement was more for the reason that I would get to see these people at work.
A similar excitement I had when I was driving to Hotel Clark’s Amer in Jaipur around twenty years back.
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It was our BE Third year at MNIT. We used to organize an All India Basketball Tournament in which national teams participated. I was in the organizing committee. That day we were planning who to invite to be the chief guest for the cultural programme we used to have in the night. The panwala outside the college gate told us that Shafi Inamdaar had visited his shop just few minutes back to have a pan and was headed to his hotel. I immediately jumped up and asked one of my juniors to fetch his car, a Maruti Van. While we were driving to the hotel, my junior remarked “Boss, wo log apne ko andar bhi nahin ghusne denge. Shafi Inamdaar se milna toh bahut door ki baat hai”. I told him not to worry but the fact was that I too was thinking the same thing.
Anyways, when we reached the hotel lobby, the receptionist at the counter, as expected expressed his ignorance on Shafi’s where abouts. We knew he was in his room but the receptionist was least cooperative. We just sat in the lobby thinking how to contact him. Suddenly we saw that the lift opened and Shafi Inamdaar walked out. I immediately got up and rushed to him. Initially he was defensive but on hearing that we were students from an Engineering College, he gave us a patient listening. To our surprise, he agreed to be the chief guest and we excitedly left the hotel after fixing up the pick up time.
That evening, when we went to the hotel, receptionist this time sent us to his room. Shafi Inamdaar opened the door. He had just got out of the bathroom and was in his towel. He asked us to make ourselves comfortable and changed his clothes while he talked with us about our college etc. That night we spent almost six seven hours with him. I think the film he was shooting for was called Yugantar. At the end of the function, he distributed prizes to the winners and we went for the dinner at one of the best vegetarian restaurants in the town. After dinner, we took him to one of the best panwalla and got him a pan. He liked the pan so much that he requested to get ten pans packed for him. He was a brilliant actor and I am sure had he lived longer, would have definitely given us some more remarkable unforgettable performances.
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All through my drive, I thought about the ensuing meeting to be a perfect gift for my birthday. But when the person at the palace gate told me that the shooting unit had already left, I felt as if a bucket full of ice was thrown on my face.
I disappointedly withdrew but was not defeated. I tried to call Vasan but his phone went unreplied. I didn’t further disturb him because I knew he had worked late and must be asleep.
So I have now sent him a text message on his cell and am waiting for his reply to know the next location tomorrow or day after.
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All my disappointment of missing Gulaal at Chomu Palace is now vanished. I called Vasan back on 5th in the evening at 5 ‘O clock and he took the call. I was happy to know that they were shooting on the Rajasthan University Road the next day, a place close to my residence. It was Sunday. Normally I spend Sundays lazily but today was different. I got ready by 9.30 in the morning and sent an sms to Vasan to confirm the schedule. I immediately got the reply that they were already on the location. As I drove close to the site, I could sense the activity.
I spotted AK sitting right there and Vasan instructing a group of boys on a rehearsal. I parked and reached close to the place where action was on. Vasan was really having a tough time with the boys.
They had to march and hop in tandem, in rhythm but it was not happening. I could make out and later confirmed by Vasan that the part of the montage being rehearsed would be used in a song.
AK also tried to instruct the boys. Soon the song was also played for the boys. I remember only “Prachand Ho…” from the song. Finally Vasan gave all the boys a break and I got the opportunity to have an eye contact with him. I waved and he reciprocated, gesturing me to hold on. In the meantime I thought to make good of the time available by introducing myself to AK.
To my surprise AK recognized me by the name. He could recollect that I had submitted maximum entries in PFCOne. It was a very warm feeling. He called Vasan and he further reiterated the same thing. AK informed that three more days of the shooting was left and the film would go into post production.
I requested AK for his permission to take some pictures to which he readily agreed. But since no action was being recorded, there wasn’t real action to be clicked.
Sky was not very conducive, being heavily overcast. In between it drizzled as well, making things tougher. AK got worried about the ARRI camera, which was soon moved inside the van. I clicked few shots of AK and got myself clicked with him. I looked for Vasan who I found sitting with the group of boys. Kshipra, another AD was with him. They too obliged by posing. I was more interested in seeing some indoor shooting, some scene being shot.
Vasan told me that some indoor shooting was to be done on 9th the last day. So I thought at least I would get to see some real action. The whole unit moved to the other location for shooting the montages and some outdoor shots. I returned back for lunch. I had planned to go back but could not for some urgent business issue coming up. Now I think I will see the indoor action on the last day and will have some better pics in action for everybody.
I think AK would soon disclose more about Gulaal himself in his post. I am sure Gulaal would turn out to be a great movie and wish AK and his team all the best.
Tags: Anurag Kashyap, Gulaal, jaipur, Shafi Inamdar
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
gajendra congrats, happy for u mate
next time we also want to see u in pics
I am there in a pic with Vasan. My pic with AK has not been pubished.:)
That’s absolutely great,gajjuji..you are a true PFC follower!
Yeah Indraneel… it was a great feeling and credit goes to PFC
i can c ur pic wid AK…n d next time v want pics of real action…please…
Gajendra,
In the short article/interview you’ve attached to this post, Anurag talks about a film called “Disaster” that he directed. Do you know which film this is?