NO SMOKING – JOHN’S MONOLOGUE & KARTIK IN WC
NO SMOKING – JOHN’S MONOLOGUE & KARTIK IN WC
Sunday Morning 7 Am
I was on the sets wearing my green kurta (hoping the kurta effect would rub on me). Today was the day where the office and the cabin scenes were to be shot. The office of Pixon Studion looked like a modern day office, with green walls etc. It has to be, since it is a real office/studio and the guys had chosen a sunday so as to avoid being disturbed in the shooting.
Between, co-incidentally, the promos/trailers of Black friday were also being shot in the same studio. Unfortunately, couldn’t see them.
Met Anurag over breakfast. Asked him about Dhoom2. “I’m insecure since the audience liked the film !! The thing about Fanaa and Kank was that the audiences didn’t like the film. But Dhoom2 was being compared to Sholay !!!
How in heaven did they manage to shoot with a helicopter in mumbai ?? How did they get the permission ?? Guess that is the Yash Raj effect !!”
I got to see some of the scenes (footage) shot in the film. Anurag wanted to see all the scenes that have been shot. The view from the 31st floor Worli penthouse is amazing. AK said – “Mumbai is looking like New York “. This is a film in which practically everyone from the crew, Punya – the assisstant art director, few ADs, Kunal the Synch sound guy and even Anurag have played ’special appearances’ and appeared as extras.
In fact the anurag kashyap scene in the lift is too good. He is looking a dapper in his glasses. The frustrating expression of John in the scene might be for real. While the scene was was being played, Anurag quipped -“Yeh kaun gadha actor aa gaya yaar sets pey ?? Hatao isey yaar” I think he’s being humble. The biggest compliment he ever got for his acting was by Satyadev Dubey (a theater giant and considered a mentor of Nasser, Om puri and Amrish Puri) after watching Sir Sir Sarla- the play by makarand deshpande with both the guys (AK,Mak) and Sonali Kulkarni, was -“After Naseeruddin shah, its you Anurag !!”
By the way, the co-actor from Paanch- Joy Fernandes, plays Alex in the film.
The scene in which John came to the office followed by Annie was shot. AK okayed the shot, but John came up and said, “I’m not too happy with the shot. It’s not working for me.. We’ll do a retake.” They did. Perhaps John was still dissatisfied. I could sense even Anurag wasn’t too excited with the shot too. “We’ll do the scene directly in the cabin with me sitting and saying it poker faced.”
Between, Christina Marouda, Anurag’s LA contact and the organiser for IIFLA had also come to watch the shooting. It was in this festival that Mixed Doubles and Black friday had won awards. She had met anurag after a long time and seemed happy to be there on the sets. She’d come in India for the Goan film festival and the kerala film festival. She said she wanted to see Kamli, a telugu Nandita Das starrer flick. Can any of my telugu friends (OM specifically you !!) review it on PFC ??? She had wanted Anurag to write for IIFLA.. but anurag chose PFC.Yeah PFC rocks (are you reading this vijay ??)
Anyways, enough digressing. John had an 80 second long monologue to be delivered. He messed up the first two takes. I was behind the monitor and waiting for him to finish it off succesfully. Before the third take, he “smiled wickedly” (AK’s desciption) and he started off. The entire 80 second long monologue was okayed with his short little improvisation done at the end. Mind you, that was a confusing piece with a couple of alliterating lines thrown in.
“Destination-tickets-tickets-destination-flights-yahaan-wahaan-book-alag” etc etc. Not to mention a couple of weird locations too !! John improvised and thattake was pretty good. I instinctively clapped my hands after the scene was shot. AK and everyone else happy. “This is nothing compared to the baap-beta-mummy-daddy lines.. they are 10 times more confusing!! I dnt know how I pulled both off “ – said John
Lunch time was great as feasted on Bhindi Fry- Daal tadka- Chicken masala (set ka khaana bhai). Poor Anurag had to eat khichdi – raita (no guesses why) due to his ill health. I feel sorry for that guy. “Water – Water everywhere, not a drop to drink” – Between the pun of Water is highly unintended.
He said he wanted me for another scene – the WC scene.
AK - Will you do it ??
KK- Heck I will !!
Ak- But you are already there in the airport scene. People will recognise you in the double role
KK- I will shave off my french beard, cut my hair and wear specs. What about that ??
Ak - you have 30 mins .. your time begins now.
I reached the nearest saloon and got my makeover done. Came back on the sets and had to wear a pink(sic) Formal Shirt, read tie, and black trousers with specs. The brief was- “You are in the toilet” … then began my 2nd role in the film.
Light and camera being set. I went to the loo and AK said ” You be in shitting…this guy knocks on the door, you come out with a WTF expression, he goes into the WC, and posts a No smoking Board and goes back. You get back to shitting”
Sumit suggested “Anurag, Kartik should be smoking” Anurag loved it and further improvised the already improvised scene (the scene was not there in the script by the way !!). I was given the ciggerettes- Just Smokes – the brand which has been invented in the film (very much ala tarantino – Pulp fiction – Red Apples).
I was in the WC with my trousers to my knees and covering my a** with my undies. (Did that rhyme ???)
The scene was okayed in the 2nd take. The first take was fine too, expecpt that the guy slapped me (again improvisation) and the cigg fell off my mouth(you cant really blame me for messing this up !!) The second was flawless. Anurag came upto me and said “You are such a sport.. I love you !!” I said “I love you too anurag for giving me a double role in my debut bollywood film, albeit as an extra. And you skeptics, who were tearing me apart in my last posts, Anurag has endorsed my natural inborn acting talent. So shut up !!!
Between, that scene was recorded at 24 frames per seconds. Meaning slow motion, so that when doubled up, it would look faster (and hence funnier). This is the reverse of the Pehla nasha song – Jo jeeta wohi sikander.
The rest of the day the cabin scenes and the gymn scenes were shot and we couldn’t enter them due to privacy/gymn policies respectively. Can’t help it. Wouldnt have wanted to interfere with the film making process. Between, we guys interacted with the ADs. Manjeet came up with the idea of adapting You said it – by RK Laxman for a film script. We told the idea to anurag who was smiling and said “We’ll see after No smoking”
Celebrated Kumar mangat’s birthday that night. Belated happy birthday but nevertheless, thank you for producing Omkara and No smoking !!!
Wait for more masala in upcoming posts !!!
(and yeah guys, next time I didn manage to speak to Ayesha and get her views too)
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
way to go kk! =D> and thanks anurag for giving him this opportunity.. you’re a true player boss.
- Thanks for this dude… between working 10 hours at your regular day job and rushing in the evenings to be on the sets of No Smoking… staying awake till 5am till Anurag calls packup… rushing home… taking a shower… speaking to oz on the excitement and rush you feel when with Anurag… getting ready… getting to work early with no sleep in the last 48 hours so you can write about your amazing experiences on PFC… you Kartik Krishnan… are a true movie fanatic… I am touched with your deep, intense passion for cinema… minus whatever toes you’ve been stepping on – on the sets –
and that is you and your unbinding enthusiasm for cinema… oz salutes you =d>
Dude..how come you cant get a shot in one take man..come on now..you must know how to smoke( Kidding!!!)..and someone slapping you while smoking is hillarious…Imagine that to be your dad..=)).
Awesome post man..KK Roxs
Who da man! – KK, the man! Boss will shout in all the shows of NY theaters when No Smoking releases to announce that ur from PFC.
Cheers man, way to go!
KK its 12 FPS..24 is normal..i guess you didnot get to sleep..
Sir …. forgive my ignorance !!!! :”>
sleep ??? thats gone out of the the window … so has my office work … so am i in a few minutes !!!
@striker – yeah AK is the real ‘gambler’ the one who doesn’t just gamble during diwalis !!!
@Oz – Kya karein – Love key liye kuch bhi karega !!!
@sumeet – my dad ??? He is computer illiterate !!! Hahah ..
Between what he will see when he sees the film. My parents have started disowning me .. after they came to know that i was in the WC in a film … in my undies
@Ravraptor – no need to announce .. I’m already announcing in the film “I write for passionforcinema.com”
On second thoughts .. we’ll all shout for No smoking to become a roaring success !!! :-)
@Anuragjee- Forgive my imputence on my lack of technical knowledge as i say ..
“I didn’t goto a film school .. nor satya … I’ve just started going to No Smoking” :-) Please bear with me
- KK, 12FPS and you report 24FPS… dhoka!!!… saala kya socha tha aur tu kya nikla… jee chahta hain ke upar wala comment delete karke neeche waale comment mein teri band bajaoon… nah… just kidding :d
- by the way a “french” beard has a completely different meaning in the US (trust me you don’t want to know about it… if i tell you – you will shave 12 times a day for the rest of your life) – it’s called a goti here… KK – global audience… phone pe jo sikhata hoon… yaad rakho yaar… ;)
KK is a dude!
Oz, he deserves a 24X7 assistant(who looks no less than JJ(u know who)) to chronicle all that he is goin thru, and put it up on PFC, to be later converted to a book
oh btw, by KK I meant apna Kartik
“bahut hard working ho bhaiyya! ek din jaroor fal milega” :d
Kartik,congrats dude…2nd time in action in No-Smoking…yaar tu to star baan-ne-wala hain. Do upload a fotu of your newer avatar.
Oz,can we have a separate section of making of No-Smoking,so that all the posts can be clubbed together for future reads.
Manjeet and Kartik any ideas?
Arre wah bhai Kartik…bahut khoob…tabhi hum kahein ki kaafi din se tum pata nahi kahan khoye rahe…koi khabar nahi…kuch khabar do bhai…ya star ban gaye ho to…..aage subtext samajh jaao.
Congrats Again :d Please make the most of this experience
bishu, if you click on “the no smoking blog” at the top left of this page (just under the PFC banner) it’ll link you to all the “no smoking”-related posts.. hope this helps
KK…pehli film mein double role!!! yaar yeh to aaj tak Big B ne bhi nahin kiya tha! ( well mushtak merchant from Sholay does come to mind :d )
But. KK. Jokes apart – its a real pleasure to see u live ur dream man. Enjoy the experience maaan!!!
KK – since u are now so close to AK – how about a triple role? Maybe this time you can paste a full beard and act like a sardar who wants to know what smoking feels like but cant do that due to social pressures and keeps asking smokers around him what it feels like. And people give me differnt answers! WOW – AK – what do u think of the idea?
Can someone tell me how do i start blogging here ?
take sophocles idea a bit further to somehow convince AK(i dunno, sleep with him or nething… no offence meant to either btw) to take it all a bit further and make a ‘dasavathram’
) (with u ofcourse).
even i wanna go to the sets :((…i m ready to risk my sem exams for it
KK ki tu lottery laag gaye .. wish i could fly to India and visit the sets :(
hi k
gr8 going man….you and anurag just keep inspiring.anurag u r one kick ass director india needed after ray