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First shot- our actor walks in the station. He is supposed to be followed by a steady cam and that is where the trouble began for the crowd was gathering more to see this(steady cam) techno piece of equipment than the activity. So the discreet element of our plan was exposed and run-out that very moment- after that it was all screaming and yelling, sometimes even pushing the crowd and getting into quarrels with them and believe me there were all kinds of them in the crowd- for one gentlemen who was asked to not look into the camera, simply ridiculed me saying, “arre kya camera mein ma dekho, who actor ka walk hi galat hai!” My curiosity compelled me to probe him more, to which he said, “ toh kya, aisa mundi niche dekh ke chalega toh expression kaisa ayega camera mein” He was a cobbler!!
As the sun rose in height so did the heat and so did the crowd- especially after lunch when some passer-by’s also became aware ki “shooting ho raha hai”, it added to the numbers gathered. Also after lunch we were shooting with Muzamil- our lead and a good looking lad, which made the attention givers more eye candy. In a torn shirt- he had to run like crazy on VT station, amidst crowds.
I had made a rough continuity book out of some papers and pinned them on a pad as there was no way to run around with the big book. I was obviously not writing meticulously- the main priority was to make sure the crowd does not stare into the camera and most importantly they do not crowd in front of it.
Thankfully Pooja mam or Bhatt saab were not there else the crowd would have been unmanageable.
The day went well, but it was not over- we were to take a 3 hour break from 7 to 10 and then start shooting the very very important climax sequence and then there would be Pooja mam and Bhatt Saab. We had hoped the crowd would fade away by 11.00 p.m. but it went on increasing as they saw vanities being parked(we had no vanity since morning), also Gulshan Grover was to shoot and his name along with Bhatt Saab’s could be seen put up on the van, until then for whoever asked we were shooting a documentary for doordarshan! But now people sensed there was something big here. It was an action sequence, the lighting was very promonient with huge skimmers used and all hopes of the people gathered were confirmed when Bhatt saab and Pooja mam walked onto the sets. Cops were there and the area was cordoned off- the time was half past 12.00 and the crowd was largest of the day!
However we started shooting at around 12.45a.m. and were done by 4.30a.m.!! That was fast and the credit of that goes to Abbas bhai- our action master, quick and wholesome. Knows exactly what he wants!
So we had finished a major sequence and as our cinematograoher put it- “The most difficult day of this films shoot was over”. We had finished 27 days of shooting as of this day. We had worked for 21 hours and some of us like a few lightmen, our DOP and Abhijeet Nain or production manager had been up and at the location since- 3.00 a.m. the previous night.
Well, how can the layman ever have any idea of what film-making is about? Only fools like us do…what say!

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