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“I have not seen a single Guru Dutt film!!!!“. As Somen, Kartik and me heard these words we almost had a Zombi moment….I could hear Guru Dutt screaming loud and clear in my ears….. “jaladoo…issee…..phoonk dalo..yeh duniyaa….”. But then that’s how he is frank, chilled out …he is passionate about his film…he does admit Oliver Stone is like his “Khuda” but in the same breath admits he is not too much into cinema viewing…he has a simple philosophy try and make a film to know how to make a film….no amount of viewing will help you unless you make one”…Words of wisdom poured over on this rather rain drenched night at Vile Parle. We are at the shoot of Nishikant’s “Mumbai Meri Jaan”.

Have been hearing about him since long and after he met the US PFC junta at IFFLA earlier this year we too were eager to meet him. As the shoot stated we saw a small aarti being performed in front of the camera. Maybe it’s a usual custom but for me it was a first time visual.

As the shoot progressed we kept to ourselves indulging in chai and sutta [super combo] and watching the proceedings from a corner trying to shelter ourselves from the rain. The entire sequence was to be shot handheld. The actors were Vijay Maurya, Paresh Rawal and Ajay who is actually the production guy. Ajay is all of 28 but already has over 10 years of film production experience. He has seen it all from Lawrence D’Souza to Nishikanth Kamath. Some journey.

The entire sequence was to be shot hand-held. One, carry the camera and 2, protect it from the rains. A few shots were canned with the rain and a few when it was not raining. Definitely more interesting with the rains. “Either it keeps pouring or it stops altogether….”..Nishikanth lamented. In fact it’s quite a long schedule for MMJ considering the locations this film is covering in Mumbai…..you name it and the MMJ unit either has shot there or will be shooting there soon.

Being a hardcore Tamil Film Fanatic I just could not resist. “Evano Oruvan”…. how was the experience. “The first few days we had no idea what the hell was going on….no one understood Tamil in the unit but as the shoot progressed it became quite comfortable. Initially it was all Chinese.” Says Nishikanth. He has plans to work more down south. He thinks the work ethic and the discipline is outstanding and it’s a pleasure working down south. Native pride. KK and me did feel very proud and kinda looked at Somen with a smirk….”you see” [We had no business feeling anything…were never contributed anything to the south industry but it’s like any man of Indian origin does anything in white land and we somehow feel so proud even if he is officially not an Indian citizen….. Something like that.]. I bugged him with my usual question….HAVE YOU SEEN “PATRUTHIVEERAN”??? [I have been bothering all and sundry with this….why? I don’t know…Oz have you seen Paruthiveeran???...dekh dekh dekh dekh…] He had not but wants to, he is a great fan of Bala too…..another proud moment….[you people understand…maaf hai yaar…cheap thrills].

The crew he has for MMJ is the same he had for all his films. It was quite funny when we all realized that he has made three films but all of them are like firsts…..first Marathi film…First Tamil Film….First Hindi Film….

We then let him carry on with his shoot. Only to bother him when we saw there was a mini break. We again cornered him. “All want to make classics…but then you never even attempt to make a classic….make a film with your heart…then the rest is upto the people who see it….”. As simple as it gets. A little late in the night around 2:30 Makarand dropped in. Had a chat with Nishikanth and left. Back to PFC. “The unit is made up of my friends. 15 years in the industry…..so you are bound to make friends….without them I don’t think I would have made even a single film…they made it possible.” He humbly acknowledged. We let him know KK was a big big big Irrfan Khan fan and is dying to meet him….KK gushed…almost like the meeting with Irrfan was a marriage proposal….he could hardly contain his excitement.

Coming Soon

“KK meets Irrfan Khan on the sets of Mumbai Meri Jaan“