Gulal : Aankhan Dekhi
Just returned back from the sets of Gulal.. For more than a week, I was so heavily occupied in the work, the I could not manage to visit the location (currently filming at Chaumu Palace, about 40 kms from Jaipur city).. and then came July 4th, the Independence day of US, became a day of freedom for me as most of my clients were busy spending time at a holiday… So I left early (9.30PM) from the office and directed my car on to the highway. It was an adventurous ride to the location.. I was so heavily engaged in my projects in last few days, that I forgot Vasan told me its Chaumu Palace and I took it for Chaksu (Near Chokhi Dhani, I remember Chokhi Dhani reference in the film so I did not even cared to confirm back) and I set off in a wrong direction.. and only after going 27 Kms, I realized this is not the direction of the destination (infact exactly opposite).. and when I took U Turn at about 10.45PM (ofc a song automatically got to my lips.. Jaate the Japan Pahunch Gaye Cheen, samajh gaye na), I was divided in two different thoughts , whether to go another 60 KM or go back home and try some other day.. I was also worried about my car (the horn was not working and the bumper got bumped off while returning from Chokhi Dhani…Placed a call to Vasan, whehter they are going to be there for long, Vasan told me dont worry, if its too late come back some other day.. but then I thought, why should I be called a PFCian, if am not driven by passion.. so by the time I reached back in the city, I directed the car to Chaumu palace instead of my home and finally reached the place at 12.30 midnight..
I entered the palace, it is an old palace and shooting was going on in the main chowk.. There were around 50-75 people, mostly from the crew… I tried to locate a few familiar faces.. Could only find Vasan running around all the places and Gurudev on the terminal, both heavily occupied.. so I found a corner to place myself…. It took another half an hour, when I had eye contact with Vasan (in the meantime one shot was taken in three takes) and loved the sparkles in his eyes the moment he saw me.. and took me to Anurag… I told him I am at ease and let him work and will meet him after the shot.. but no, he literally pushed me to Anurag.. “Sir, This is Pavan Jha”.. Anurag’s eyes sparkled the same way.. Thats the magical bond of PFC.. It was first time I was meeting him (met Vasan earlier) and met as if we knew each other for years.. If I say I was overwhelmed, it would be an understatement..
Anurag offered a seat near to him on the terminal and we talked between the shots.. Rajeev Ravi was on the camera and it was a shot between Ayesha Mohan (Kiran) and Raja chaudhary (Dileep Singh), where Kiran is trying to talk to Dileep… and asking if she can join his party.. The shot was okeyed in a couple of takes.. Vasan comes in after the shot was okeyed… Gurudev kept talking about PFC, Gulal (very excited about it) and on his film on Gurudutt.. He has already done a lot of research on Gurudutt’s life and collected a lot of rare material to study..
Coming back to Gulal, to what all I saw and observed, I am sure it would be a Dhamaal of a film.. Get ready for another shocker of a film from Anurag.. Hard hitting and surely to create a noise before and after the release of the film.. Although the shell is Student Politics, but the core is hardcore politics.. Dileep Singh played by Raja chaudhary is the lead protagonist of the political game. Dont want to disclose more so that shock value is retained till its release..
The music is one of the major characters of the film.. A Political Mujra (sung by Rekha Bhardwaj, choreographed by one of the youngest member in the crew, Maanasi (also choreographing DevD)) “Ranaji” even talks of Iraq, Afghanistan and Uncle Sam (it was shot just last night on the lead actress Mahie Gill playing Anuja).. Another satirical song is a take on Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil me hai (Music and Lyrics both by extremely talented Piyush Mishra ji)…
Met Rajeev Ravi in between the shots and Anurag Introduced me to Raja Chaudhary and Mahie Gill (She is also playing Paro in DevD).. Raja immediately came back Pavan Jha “from PFC?” and I was surprised and he told me that the moment he heard the name he could connect it to PFC.. He basically belongs to Jaipur only and a nice guy to know..
It was 3.30 AM when Anurag called Packup and another hard day of work comes to an end.. What was really good to see that everyone in the cast and crew is as happy and passionate about the project. I am sure the hard work and passion is gonna pay and Anurag will surely have Gulal (a sign of Victory) on the forehead when the film gets released..
another ghazal got on to my lips while returning back..
“rago.n me daudte phirne ke hum nahin kaayal
jab aankh hi se na tapaka to phir lahu kya hai”
to be continued…
Tags: Anurag Kashyap, gulal, jaipur, political, shooting
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
AWESOME pavan saaab!!! dil maange more
Thanks for this. How wonderful that you were able to participate in the shoot. In the last picture, VB in the middle, who’s on the left and right?
Can’t wait to see “Gulal”
By the way is there ‘Poster Competition’ for “Gulal”,
Would love to participate
@ Shripriya
left is Raja Chawdhry(Protagonist Gulaal) and right is Neel(Chief AD Gulaal)
..awesome Pavansaab!
“rago.n me daute phirne ke hum nahin kaayal
jab aankh hi se na tapaka to phir lahu kya hai”
am singing this now pavanji ..and hoping gulal rocks !!!
more more more
Pavan… I am jealous of you. I went to Chomu Palace today only to know that the unit had packed up in the morning itself. Now I’m waiting for Vasan’s sms for another location in Jaipur on Sunday or Monday. I’ve expressed myself through a post as well separately.
“hazaron saal nargis apni benoori pe roti hai..tab kahin jaakar hota hai chaman me deedawar paida…” congrats pavan sahab…aap is nirman ki kadi ke gawaah bane….gulaal humare samay ki ek mahatvapoorna film hai jo aane waali peedhiyon ke liye etihasik aur kaaljayi banegi aisi asha hai….we can sense how much Anurag is attached with this film..jab Anurag ne hume is film ke gaane sunaaye the tab anurag ki aankhe bhar aayi thi kyonki film ko ek lekar anischitta bani hui thi…par dil me tamanna thi ki kabhi to banegi ye film…and now it happened….ab to bas sirf intezaar hai…intezar
Cool!!!
rago.n me daudte phirne ke hum nahin kaayal
jab aankh hi se na tapaka to phir lahu kya hai…kya baat hai!! sexy Pavansaab, 60 km zyada nahi chalein to passion hi kya!!! mujra by rekha bhardwaj…wow..wow!! ye dil maange moreeee!!
u r really pavan,
pavan ka jhonka hai kabhi yahan to kabhee wahan.
finally yahan bhi aur wahan bhi.
apnee aankhen aur brain ka storage udhaar de do, ye pal shayad hum bhi jee len.
Lovely… Eager for more about Gulal
. Hope AK gets back to posting NS style with this (and Dev.D) 
.
…or atleast another detailed ‘movie blog’ is setup for this…
I am sorry to post again… but i meant ‘lovely post’ with my 1st comment… apologies in advance for spamming…
Excited to see the pic of Anurag on the sets of Gulal. Thank you, Pavan. Can’t wait to see the film…Its going to be a KILLER in many senses..
Shekhar Shimpi can do a great job on a Gulal poster…I bet…