No Smoking Coverage Nov16….I
PrintIt was around 3:00PM, when I arrived on the sets, a penthouse on 31st floor of a tower in Worli. When we met Anurag was all smiles, and introduced me to various unit members as a member from PFC! Everyone was so nice that I felt I belong to this group in just a few minutes.
Wow what a spectacular view!! One could see our beautiful Mumbai Nagariya’s coastline from Colaba to beyond Bandra! It’s a place, whose owner would say, “Mumbai ka King Kaun?” The answer won’t be Bhiku Mahtre this time but ‘K’ played by the dashing John Abraham! ( I am just using Anurag’s dialogues. I have no idea what the character, dialogue or story is like.)
Soon the shot was ready. The Cinematographer is Rajeev Ravi a FTII graduate, who has earlier been with Anurag in ‘Panch’ and ‘Gulal’. The Camera department was quick in arranging the shots. They had an Arri 535 (silent camera), Arri 3 , Panther dolly, latest Kino-Flos(array of strong tube lights) and tons of other lights. They had constructed an additional structure around 20 feet in height to support lights and cameras. As the film had sync sound (recording the sound on the set itself eliminating the dubbing portion in post production), assistant director (AD) Gautam announced, “please switch off your mobile phones and everybody be silent”. Camera started rolling Anurag shouted, “action”. Ayesha got into the mood of the character started the dialogues with natural expressions. Suddenly there’s a ring and guess what? Its close to the component monitor, where Anurag is watching the take. The culprit is nailed down.Its Param! The AD responsible for checking continuity. Anurag is quick to respond,” throw the mobile out!” in a jocular way. Everyone starts picking on the poor guy. The next take is perfect! Even I get a light moment on the set to share with you! Param is a funny character. He has 3 different color pens and a stop watch hanging around his neck. He has to check the continuity in Audi/Video and dress along with the duration of the shot, the type of lense used, type of shot been taken, etc. No doubt Anurag calls him ‘Detail Singh’J
It was wonderful to watch Ayesha Takia act! She is no doubt very cute but also a very natural actor, who knows what exactly the director expects. Most of the takes were single or double. Some scenes had to be repeated because of technical difficulties in sound, light etc. Ayesha completed set of shots in brisk pace. In Mumbaiya slang, what we would call ‘Taka Tak” 
The art department seemed to have done a great job in converting an under construction penthouse into a posh, elite dream house. To their credit they also have specially designed packets and cartoons of cigarettes called ‘Just Smokes’.
I had met almost everybody but one star was missing. Guess who? Chief AD Rajkumar. Anurag started the rumor that Rajkumar is so very excited of getting laid today finallyJ But Anurag had his own devilish plans! He is looking ‘Chikna’ with clean shaved beard in ‘fulltu’ attempt of taking Rajkumar’s final resort away! Its fun when Rajkumar arrives. The usual ‘masti’, which keeps the unit bouncing with energy!
John arrives in evening and gives a great visual shot taken from the specially made 20 feet high structure out side the window, with camera panning from the City’s skyline to ‘K’s’ window. For the cinematography buffs an ISA 500 film was used. The camera had an aperture of 1.9 while it was covering the city skyline and was gradually reduced to 2.8 when it reached the window. Girls would love the sceneJ
In between sets Anurag improvised on yet another shot. He wanted to take a visually stunning shot with camera vertically moving upwards in a scene involving John. A structure is specially made where the camera would hang in a vertical position on a pulley system. In the process few hours are lost and the schedule goes behind by 5 scenes.
I got a chance to meet John. I told him that I am from PFC and would be covering the shoot for our bloggers. We started discussing, while John was having his home made vegetarian food, with less oil and spices. I could not accept the generous offer of sharing the dinner as I was already full. Some company for veggies! John prefers vegetarian diet and occasionally eats fish. John has been on PFC and was aware of the fact that the review of the departed has maximum hits. I could not tell him the number of hits PFC has in a day when asked. Confirmed with Oz about the number later.
John was delighted by the response his film ‘Kabul Express’ had received in major international film festivals. He wants to strike a balance in doing commercial and offbeat movies. He seems to be obsessed with Anurag’s script. He was anxious to see people’s reaction to the film when it’s released. He was all praise for Anurag for having a very clear vision of directing a scene.
John and Ayesha took the centre stage giving great performances. Both of them complimented each other very well. Just like Ayesha, John was quick to get under the skin of the character and started going “Taka Tak”. John and Ayesha continued the hard work till the early morning. Finally it was wrap time at 5:15 am!
The whole unit is so well mixed up with each other and everybody seems to be pumped up, willing to go an extra mile, without any ego clashes, complementing and inspiring each other. It was nothing short of a picnic or getaway for me plus a chance to learn hands-on film making! Rajkumar dropped my off at Dadar station in his production car along with fellow Ads on their way back home!
Stay tuned pictures will be uploaded soon!!! More coverage is coming!!
Tags: Direction, Teaching Film-making, The No Smoking Diary
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Rahul Dholakia
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Varma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Sachin Kundalkar
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Manjit: wonderfull , thanks
waiting for pics!!!
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kya baat hain singh! next time you go to the set take your laptop with you and could give us a live text commentary… something like that and get people to contribute. if it’s possible.
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lucky u manjeet !!!!!!!!!! sounds like a lot of fun….
Waiting for the pics
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waah manjeetey! its gettin better each day
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- Good one Manjeet. Though you forgot to mention how you badgered me for days to make that arrangement… :d It’s all good now that I get to read the post and relive the day on the No Smoking Sets… you didn’t mention Ayesha Takia when you spoke to me last evening… I am UPSET!
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May be Ayasha Takia also did not mention meeting Manjit on sets of NS. to her Boyfriend!!!!
Hope Manjit has given her hearing of his first film’s story.
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woww niiice manjeet!! great job.. looking fwd to more!
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Shukriya us khuda ka jisne ne OZ ko banaya:)
“Shaant Ghadhadhari Bheem Shant”.
I thought people will get bored listening to my ideas so did not include that part.
Guys get after Oz’s ass I have saved the pictures on PFC. He has to put the description and post the pics.
Anurag, Rajkumar gang have got passes for new James Bond Movie. I guess they must be in cinema by now.
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Oyye Manjeet…Bahut badhiya…Must have been an awesome experience man. Thanks to Oz…yaar..ask Anurag to shoot one portion in LA..i have never seen a shoot..boohoo…
Thanks Anurag for the gesture. Manjeet we want more…
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Singh,
What do you mean when you say “Shaant Ghadhadhari Bheem Shant”? I know it’s from Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron and you’ve explained this before, but i forgot. i only remember that it’s a mumbai slang.
thanks
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HG:Hi
hey
Bheem is Pandav brother, next to Yudhisthir and his armament is Gada, like Hanuman and Duryodhana.
In the Mahabharata Serial Yudhisthir often used to say to Bheem – Bhai bheem or gadadhari bheem shant ho jayo. whenever he became angry which he often did.
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Grt Job! I had this idea in mind for long time…thought of emailing OZ but you have already implemented it. May be from now I should be more proactive:)
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ah, i see.. i thought it would have completely different meaning to ti. thanks
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HG its just a way of saying calm down:)taken from JBDY in the classic Mahabharat scene!
My sleep cycle has changed:) Will have to get used to it!
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great insight into things, this will be one movie i think i’ll enjoy watching as i’ll be able to say oh yeah i remember that this happened behind teh scenes etc
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http://www.naachgaana.com/2006/11/17/on-the-sets-of-anurag-kashyap-s-no-smoking
looks like other sites are promoting you guys well
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U lucky devil. U got to meet all the nice ppl while we were waiting twiddling our fingers.
Very happy for you though. And congrats on well written piece.
Oz, good stuff on your P.R. front.
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Sangeeta….That link..is awesome..guess who has written it…Apna Oz bhai…Lol!!!!!!!!
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Oh really lol i didnt realise!
Hahaha excellent!
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Hey Manjeet…very good bhai…I am happy that you are having a good time.
I hope this one is more organised and less chaotic than …Jo Bole So Nihaal.
I need to know how professional it is…are they planned…do they improvise???
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Shitij: Everything is planned 2 days in advance. The scheduling has been done using latest softwares. A call sheet is printed and given to the unit. No doubt this unit is very professional and is like a family!
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