NO SMOKING-Finally begun..
PrintFinally shooting has begun..finally Ayesha Takia is locked in..finally major problems have begun..The day before the shoot, finally when K(john abraham)’s car arrived,,i really didn’t know what i had gotten myself into..Pajero from the fiat era..that looked like a beaten up safari..now how can my character who lives on the 35th floor in worli, signs cheques of obscene amounts without a thought could drive a vehicle like that..but its a pajero sir..who gives a fuck ..it doesn’t look like it.. had no option..asked my producer’s car crazy son to fix it or i won’t shoot.. my producer has gone nuts, he has banned smoking on the sets..a joke taken so far, that he fined me 500 bucks and then mother of them all..he gave me a reciept for it..somebody help me..
slowly i think john and me are understanding each other..it gets difficult sometimes to collaborate when a lot of actors come from a school of filmmaking where its always the director who tells them how to act and how to say..i don’t..so i think he was little confused when he showed me two different ways of doing a scene and i said either is good ,then he showed me a third option and i found that good too..he looked confused..to him i probably looked like someone who didn’t know what i wanted..then i told him about the moment..i explained to him what works for me..i told him to be in the moment, see where the mood takes him..react accordingly and not act..he did that, i loved it..he still probably wasn’t sure..good he is hungry..he is so willing to do it well..even his detractor in my team is now agreeable..
shot the flashbacks..shot them like a sitcom..like they did it in natural born killers..complete with the laugh tracks..it was shlok’s idea..which i immediately rejected..then gautam my casting director heard it ..he explained it to me..gave me the example of NBK..i understood.. now how different am i from those whose minds don’t function without a reference..so much for being original..
Ranveer has decided to play abbas tyrewala with a squint and a perm..he couldn’t understand why the character is called what he is called..wouldn’t the real abbas have a problem..well, real abbas ditched me..he was to play the role..this is my revenge..ha ha..
Press is going crazy over how john is going naked in the film..well he is but its hardly a sex scene..we don’t even know whether we will just suggest it or actually do it..women are calling me, wanting to be his ass handlers..we have to do some underwater sequences..now i am wary of doing it in a pool..noone here can make that big a water tank..glass can’t hold that much force of water..how the fuck do they do it in hollywood..help me with your innumerable options barring jenna jameson oz..(i like teagan by the way)..
DAY -1..we shot on the streets on diwali night..camera rigged on..lights reflecting on the windscreens and john driving like a nut on crowded streets..it almost looked like he will run some one over..what control..and what a great looking vehicle he got yesterday..one day..hmmmmmmmmmmmm
DAY -2..we shot the russian news reader..stripping and reading news ..it was hilarious and crowded on the sets..every one wanted to see how far are we taking the stripping bit..i hope we got the language right..no one except Vlada who read the news knew the language..she was also the one who translated it from english..have to take her word for it..
DAY-3..shot the flashbacks..the sitcom was hilarious..have to yet see the dailies of CUBA hotel room..last moment i decided to give Alex (Joy fernandes) two women with him..we got two six-footers from Reykjavik..tania and sarah..they were such sports..that too in bikinis..half my crew had a crush on them..the other half’s sexual repression found its way to their eyes..we largely improvised it on 18 FPS..i don’t know yet how it looks..i hope i am not going overboard..I owe to Don and Jaan-e-man..watching them i realised how technique is killing stotytelling..have to be so bloody careful..sometimes we get so carried away in the moment we forget the larger picture..have to stop falling in love with my own shots..
DAY-4..started with a delay..someone forgot the keys to the lock to the bar we were to shoot in..we had to cut the lock..great shoot.. ranveer looked hilarious and menacing in his newly acquired perm..we used a lot of neons to light up the scene..its so bloody dangerous to shoot with neons..all naked wires..am going to use “those were the days” by Mary hopkin to begin the sequence..john was very natural in the first take..then i don’t know why he asked for a second one and something magical happened..he took a sip of the champagne(real one),that hit him in the nose..and something that he did, the way he pressed his eyes and without losing his focus he delivered it straight..i didn’t expect that..nor did anyone..all reacted..ranveer who worked with him on his first film Jism reacted too..”Fuck John ,you have grown so much“he remarked..Vishal dropped in with matthew..they fuckin loved the lighting..it becomes such a vanity exercise on the sets that one only wants to here wows and damngoods..and i feel so insecure ..i do my shot divisions on the spot..always feeling haven’t taken enough shots..then we moved to my house..my house doubled up as abbas’s house..fuck man..how do people give their house for shooting..i was worried constantly about rajkumar stealing my DVD’s..our special effects assistant fucked up..prashant is the name of the fuck up..he forgot to co-ordinate the green gloves..the art department produced one of the worst quality rings that abbas was suppose to wear..had to hide and shoot it..two pending shots for later..
DAY-5..big big big fuck up..lack of communication..lack of co-ordination..couldn,t shoot the damn hotel set up..tania and sarah were in the tub..joy in his kaftaan..we couldn’t do it..because we wasted three hours waiting for the damn chair..we needed a psychiatrist room set up..we needed a black and grey and white feel to it..the damn massage chair cost a lot..no body had the balls to ask the producer..no body had the courage to tell me..all they kept saying was “aa rahi hai sir”..wasted wasted fucking day..by the time we got to finish the psychiatrist room the shift was over..couldn’t do the hotel room..i was angry..rajkumar furious..called a production meeting..today..cancelled shoot for two days..need to co-ordinate better..
Haven’t been sleeping well..coughing constantly..still drinking, though only two drinks..have this big fear of something horrible is going to happen..thank god i have a great team..going to use the lowloader for street scene..don’t even know what it looks like ,how it functions..only magical entry shot of a car i remember is from colour of money..i was told i can get my movements during the car talkie scenes using the low loader..lets see..we are going to shoot in the heart of south bombay..lets see..que sera sera ..
Departed finally releasing in bombay..hopefully uncut..world trade center on the same day..oliver stone and scorcese on the same day..cancelling shoot on third..
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Varma
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
Anurag, Dont we have waterproof cameras in Mumbai? Might have to shoot in a different format and then do the RT. Looks like crew is having a good time on the sets:)
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“Technique is killing story telling” – its so difficult to balance everything as a person who is at the helm of such a creative team.
Even though some of te terminology used by you is above the head, the insights you are giving is amazing…
Keep em comin Anurag and all the very best…
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Anurag start the flashbacks by :
1.slowly focussing on the TV that is kept in the room…now something is coming on the TV and it is just as we come near to it that we see its the flasback being run.
2.other time it may start from the computer kept in the room.
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Anurag please if you get some time,go through my blog…I had made some posters on smoking…
Please see if they could be of some help to you.
Our best wishes are always with you.
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Directing an Actor……..
This seems to be a trickiest of all. Acting could be broken down into actions and expressions. But whose job is it. Is the Actor suppose to know how does he fill in the detail for a particular scene. Is it the Director who hands over a list of things an actor should do or the Scriptwriter who writes down every minute detail in the script itself. Having watched our film it seems like actors are the ones who take care of it. Good actors do a great job in filling in the details whereas others fail miserabally. Some directors are known to show the actors by performing themselves what they want, but a director doesnt have to be a good actor.
Black Friday had tremendous performances, which method was followed?
Theres a book called ‘Directing actors’ by Judith West, which is on the syllabus of all major film schools in the US and most of the hollywood directors have read it and even attended personal workshops conducted by the author.
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Hi Anurag,
Thanks. Wonderful reading. And yes please keep them coming…
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hi anurag
yaar, tu to mujhe bhool hai gaye! but i am always in touch with people around who tell me what´s life playing a nice game with you.
he man, let me know in future if i can do any thing 4 u. your producers promisses me to reedit your black friday. i am still ready to release it in German Seaking Europe…
now a days there are so many bastards who are spoling new indian cinema along the bollywood stuff. it is pitty that our guys are running that hot money and do not bother what exactly happend to their blood work…
happy to hear that no smoking is on the way!
look forward to your words.
take care
kamran germany
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am very pleased to know that you think john is or can be a very good actor…ok there is no kay kay but plz plz plz try to fit him in somehow, plz! guest apperance bhi chalega, puhleeeese!
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- Anurag, Friday morning. 7am. Office. Switch on computer. No Smoking article. Brain’s switch triggers off shooting ideas in a million different directions.
: Underwater pool scene :
1. Here are two different articles I had read some time in the past and found it very interesting. I know it may be a classic case of me going “chota mooh badi baat” – the things mentioned there may have been one of the firsts you may have thought about – still…
http://www.cinematography.net/Pages%20DW/S16AnamorphicUnderwater.htm
http://www.stephenfrink.com/sf-tips/overunder/
I liked the way they also talk about the light (natural) in the above links.
2. Don’t have much knowledge in the techniques of movie making, but I’ll use my gone to sleep mechanical engineering mind (thank you Dad for forcing me to do a BE, today I’m making full use of it)
Is the underwater scene a comedy? If it is then not much care and precision would be required to do the following but if it’s a “serious scene” the same thing can be done but with a lot care and technical precision
Actor in front of a green screen, standing or wired preferably (to give the floating effect). If the scene has two actors then two powerful fans are placed back to back on the top (out of the camera sight) facing each actor. The air blowing out ruffles their hair and clothes and gives the effect of hair and clothes “sticking” out.
The whole scene is captured (using camera tricks – fast capture slow play) in a way that a certain amount of slow motion is achieved. This slow motion achieves the real life slow actions one goes through underwater. (the actors here move at normal pace, the slo-mo is achieved by the camera)
Replace green screen with water on computer. – which takes care of water at the back… what about the water in front of the characters?… shoot the scene through a glass fish tank? or perhaps the fx will take care of putting water all around?
3. The actors can be placed in a real pool. Now here’s what I’m not sure on how Bollywood achieves taking a normal camera underwater. But again – doing a chota mooh badi baat- How about – instead of encasing the water in a pool tank made of glass (which as you and many in past have had a problem with) – why not take the camera in a ultra transparent glass water tight casing and dipping it in the pool infront of the actors. The side of the glass through which the camera will capture the action can be coated with the transparent chemical that makes the glass nonsticky – water doesn’t stick to it. The camera can be dipped into the pool using a manually operated pnuematic/hydrolic arm and the tele monitors can be out of the pool where you and the arm-operator can view the scene underwater and move the pneumatic arm accordingly.
Regarding the lights issue in idea 3: I have no clue. Perhaps bright sunlight. High powered beam light place in a row or circle just above the water in the pool? Or perhaps – if safety precautions can be adequately taken – placing the high powered beam far back behind the actors or perhaps far ahead in front of them?
Much more to talk on other things in your article…
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dnt wanna sound stupid making techie suggestions …. but it sounds like one helluva film … newsreader stripping ???? Baap re ….
Eagerly waiting for ur next post !!!! Keep them rolling anurag
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damn.. anurag, please feel free to give these russian girls a bigger role in your next
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Anurag bhai, good to hear you’ve started shooting. I’ve shot underwater sequences before. The low-budget way of doing it is to find a swimming pool with a glass wall. They have one here in LA at USC that you can shoot at for real cheap. You can use the swimming pool lighting and the glass wall is fairly large so you can actually place your lights behind the glass. It’s cheap, and works for simple shots. If you need very complex underwater shots with more camera movement and flexibility, then they use a camera housing here. Expensive to rent, but you get to really explore space a lot more with that gear. Hope this helps.
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- Anurag, about that smoking receipt. Could you check with your producer if it is tax-deductible?
Regarding the chaos – the Pajero and then the Chair… can’t there be some kind of record kept on what props will be needed on what day? And the props are arranged for it as per the list a few hours or a day in advance? Also a backup for some major props that are key in the scene – what if that required prop cannot be made available – any replacements or alternatives…
That “lust” in the eye thingy of the crew… if you give the PFC authors and readers a screening of No Smoking when in LA… I’ll give them a free PUA training for 4 hours which will have the girls on the sets having “lust” for that half of your crew. ?
I don’t think you need to worry about anything. You’ve stuck with the story for 8 long years and finally it’s seeing the light of the day. That is proof enough that this is a great story and you are on the right track.
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- Kartik, Ok since we are sitting in the audience our ideas may sound stupid. So please give some. Actually it would be comforting for me to have another guy giving stupid ideas along with me in the room. :-”
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here’s a stupid idea.. oz, i guarantee you’ll be proud
put the camera in a really big ziploc bag and take it underwater.. that should REALLY put those ziploc ads to the ultimate test.. no?
(just kidding anurag.. i’m stupid.. just not THAT stupid)
:-”
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i don’t know anything about but..
You should watch BBC The Blue Planet Documentary You will be amazed!
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Actually i was immideately reminded of the silk routes ‘Dooba dooba rehta hoon’ song … which they shot completely underwater … here’s the link …
http://www.tribuneindia.com/1998/98aug29/saturday/head5.htm
Any idea how they shot the underwater kissing sequences in Gangster ???
A potentially hazardous question … Is there like a waterproof camera or something … ???
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Kartik, the link I provided has a link to the video – which shows how they captured underwater wildlife and they produced stunning pictures.
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- Interesting observation on the technique – story balance. Many these days get so lost in technique that the eye moves off the story.
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- John has a nude scene? Russian newscaster stripping! Russian girls in a bathtub…
– by the way I ran into Teagan (think its her or that’s what she mentioned her name) about 6 months ago at a bar bang across The Standard in Hollywood (can’t f-ing remember the name – it has that mechanical horseback ride). Did not know it was Teagan. Approached her asking her if she bought her dress from an Indian store (she was wearing some ethnic), started talking and she gave me her “business” card with an autograph asking me to call her. Was unnerved after checking her business card and googling her name… Damn it… ~X(
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don’t worry, everything will work smoothly..it’s just the initial hiccups…
also you have the ‘marathon man’ with you…he’s not called the marathon man for nothing…
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Wow! What a luxury!
Shooting without all the actors set
Shooting without doing a complete costing of props and vehicles required 8-|
Director takes off because he wants to see a couple of films – one of which is just a remake and the other an Ok film but no great shakes
Am I jealous or what? Can somebody please collect all the paise they are throwing around? I will make a film with just that as a budget
(
Man o man…is this going to be a great classic or a stink? I am still betting on the former…one reason…Anurag Kashyap!
>-
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Ohh wow… Great to hear the movie has started rolling. About the Water shot… Here’s what we did for a short movie with almost zero budget
We hired a huge aquarium(fish) positioned the camera very close to it, the actors on the other side, and the rest is what Oz said… Huge blowers, wet clothes.. it is cheaper that way and gets the job done without anyone realising that it was not done in actual water.
One more thing we did to keep the continutity was to take snaps of the location we were shooting on multiple days… snaps of all little things, like where the stool is, where the alarm clock is..so, next day when you shoot the movie in same location the you can go over the snaps in real quick time and organize things which were packed or bounced off after the day’s work.
Need to re-read the article one more time..damn its so addictive.
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You and me have a common friend by the name of Nishikant kamat.Whenever I am working with him,he always refers to something he calls ‘Magic’ which occurs out of spontaniety but makes a huge impact in the final picture.With your working style,I am sure this ‘Magic’ will occur in the making of No smoking.
Talking about The departed,what are your views on scorsese making a remake?Personally,I am still confused as to why on earth did scorsese make a remake…Since I know he is GOD for you (For me as well)do you think he really needed to this?
P.S.;Please write more frequently.Please!
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God this is good..connecting finally with some old friends..hey kamran ..man how are you..black friday is finally releasing..Adlabs is releasing it..maybe in dec or jan..they want us to shorten the film..i don’t know how..i don’t know the germany release bit..
and guys we have underwater cameras..not that advanced..we also have pools with glass seperation..at filmcity and FTII..this sequence i need john in a suit in water..our worry is, the suit might get heavy and wet and pull him down..one reference i have is from sin city..we are figuring out..using blower and wireworks sounds good..we will have to cost it though..
ANTHONY-yeah man its luxury, its also painful..but thats the way i have worked right from satya days ..we tend to over look the tiniest details while budgeting..sad part is we in here do not budget for admin..and i depend a lot on spontaneity..thats when i am at my best..even if everything is pre decided i tend to adapt to that moment and space..the chase in black friday is an example,where every single shot was decided just before it was shot because i wanted to explore the space..
CHAITANYA-well i love scorcese unconditionally..he must be having his own reasons to remake..i am not in his shoes..i have my own struggles..he has his..and believe me..as you go higher up..your struggle to sustain yourself and the very reason you wanted to make films in the first place also increases..the struggle largely lies in ones own head..the fact that he is still after all these years struggling to either find or keep his vision says it all..read scorcese on scorcese& schrader on schrader..says a lot..
And there is a book called INNER VIEWS..that has a lot of filmmakers that defined the seventies,talk about their internal struggles..there breaking marriages, various addictions,high life,studios..ther struggles to find themselves..being a filmmaker thats the most honest and insightful book i have read..
And JOHN ABRAHAM with each passing day is finally turning out to be the best choice i could have made..the guy is hungry..he is willing to work bloody hard..his suggestions to do scenes are really fucking good..no tantrums..the dude rocks..i don’t know why people force him to look or act glamorous..he has an inherent sexiness and glamour that none can take away..and when natural you can’t not look at him..
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Abbas Tyrewala character..LOL..
I understand Natural Born Killers on a whole has a kind of TV type narration because of its subject and thats why flash back works as sitcom..In No Smoking..flash back as sitcoms..TV newsreaders stripping..?? well lot of work for my grey cells on the story of No Smoking
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@Anurag
I guess I understand what you are saying..A similiar question i had asked to nishi da regarding whether does talent simply die out in artistes and he had given me a similiar kind of explanation…But your answer was really helpful..I will def. read the three books you have mentioned…
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anurag: ty for providing us with sheer voyueristic pleasure through a ‘peep hole’ into the making of your film.
fourthwall: i’m sure there is some sort of a context here, a take on ‘media’ or sumthin as was the case in NBK, maybe it fits the framework of the film or it could be just comic relief, time will tell, but whatever may be the case, i’m bitten curious.
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Hay Anurag,
Will smoking be allowed inside cinema halls where No Smoking will be screened?!
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- STM, I think only cigars will be allowed. Hope that answers your question.
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Anurag,
John in nude will get the women drooling. Now is it my fault if I want to see Ayesha Takia nude too in No Smoking. Or is it too much for a indian actress to go bum chik bum?!:)
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Will Ramdoss be invited for the Preview?!
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- STM, is it my fault I just blacklisted you while going bum chik bum \:d/
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Raj Kumar Santoshi to play a Doctor in No Smoking?!
I loved him in Halo. It should be interesting to see him as a madcap doctor.
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I’ve seen a picture of John on a web somewhere for this movie – topless
Also been reading that Rajkumar Santoshi is to act in No Smoking too. This is getting better by the minute
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hmmmmmm things are getting more and more interesting.
good luck anurag
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Hi Anurag,
i think you should slow down on your drinks. alcohol has destroyed the best in creativity. i am nobody to say this but just got a gut feeling feeling to say this.all the best!!!
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Hey rony, have stopped doing so ..for last six days..lets see
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Ok juss a very stupid question but wasnt there some kinda smoking ban or smthing in hindi movies recently.. if yes how do u plan to make this movie as in is it really gonna NO SMOKING in the movie??
juss a lil curious
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Anurag, is there any promo/first look/poster of No Smoking done/been done?
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Hey ANURAG, iam a big fan of u. i just loved ur interview in Rajiv Masand’s show ‘Now Showing’ where u told d movie that change ur life – ‘THE BICYCLE THIEF’. i want to b a film maker & my inspirations r – shyam benegal, sudhir mishra, martin scorsese, nagesh kukunor, vishal bharadwaj, madhur bhandarkar,etc. but u r the one who changed my life. u r d best:)>-
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@Akshay
Can u give the link to that interview ?
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turtle, u will find d video at http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/32647/turning-point-anurag-kashyap.html
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