Shooting TGIB
The Great Indian Butterfly
I do not know till date, what prompted Parth Arora to put his own money, whatever little he made from his earlier film, ‘Dhoop’, on an unconventional film like this? It wasn’t like we were childhood friends or anything. Neither had he even seen a single work of mine. I, as a producer will probably never do that. Or may be I should. I have requested Parth to write on PFC about his reasons to produce this film. He is sometimes shy. Hope he concedes.
Parth and I had already once discussed the possibility of doing the film some one and half years before he again got back in touch with me. He had some partners earlier. But when Parth finally came around, he was alone and free of any other encumbrance, apart from the fact that he had very little money to spare. Parth might never talk to me again if I mention that amount here. But I shall be eternally grateful to him for making that important amount available for the film and thereby making a huge difference to my career, that was going nowhere. He helped me make my first film with complete support and zero interference. It is difficult to find a person like Parth at the stage of one’s career in which I found him.
On the casting front, it so happened that earlier when some discussion was on, Shanker had mentioned that his friend Aamir Bashir would be interested in assisting in the direction because he was himself planning to direct a feature film in the future. I was absolutely okay. But when the project got revived, and we looked around, we realized that he was best-suited for the role himself. He knew the film in and out and was also willing to take a plunge with us. Irawati, on the other hand was planning to start a family…
I had just watched ‘Waisa Bhi Hota Hai, Part II’ and was very impressed with Sandhya. So, we met her one evening at the Bandra Mocha and gave her the script. The next day she sent me a text saying she was doing the film.
Things began to look bright. Mad connections began to take place again. For example, Parth and I went back to Goa to do a recce. Late in the night, we were at the farthest end of the Baga beach road. It was offseason time and the place was really dark and deserted. However, we were there only to check a hotel called Baia Do Sol for the unit’s lodging. Just as we were getting into our car, a couple approached us in the darkness. They told us that they had faintly overheard us talking about some film shooting. They introduced themselves as line producers working in Goa. We decided to meet again the next morning and soon they were actually appointed as the line producers for the film. We met them a few more times during that stay and they showed us some lovely locations where we actually went and shot our film. On the last day, we were talking about the need of a car. Clemente, the line producer, told us about this two-seater Porsche-like car which is manufactured in Goa. It was a Sunday, yet we took a chance and landed at the factory. The moment I saw the car, I knew, it was the one. So we took the numbers of the owner from the factory and called him right away. He was sitting in Bombay! He agreed on the phone and suddenly even the car thing got sorted.
This car thing is an interesting story, which I’ll soon come to.
After a lot of number crunching, we came to a sordid conclusion that if we had to shoot this film, we would have to finish it in 17 days. A day more, and we would have an unfinished film in our hands needing to look for funds outside.
It was Shanker’s idea to keep the frames ‘dirty’ as a protocol. That would give certain edginess to the whole thing and also would help us to shoot without bothering to reshoot anything for reasons of a frame gone awry.
I have also appealed to Shanker to write a post on how he designed the look of the film, which you’ll read soon.
I had an issue of ‘coverage’ with the number of cans that was made available to me. I knew my editor would later cry for lack of options but I had no option myself. Hence, what you shall see in the film is what has been shot. At many points you would see someone while you would hear someone else. It blends perfectly to the narrative, thanks to two brilliant editors who later labored on the film. But only we knew (and now you know too) that we did not have many of the reverses or masters or close ups, ideally needed, as they were never shot! I quite love this way of shooting now. I think I’ll continue to shoot like this for a while till I decide to get spoilt and go for heavy coverages from many possible angles. Living films completely on paper a few times before going and shooting them on the floor brings a lot of self-discipline and also saves a lot of producer’s money. It’s almost like recreating your dream with small adjustments for the betterment. You don’t dream in more angles than one!
Things moved smoothly and we slowly headed towards our D-day. The car manufacturer (San Storm) told us they would make 2 cars of the same color available to us at Bombay. We would use them all the way to Goa and drop them at their factory and leave. No money; this way or that.
I got to know that the cars left from Goa in a carrier a week prior to the commencement of the shoot. It was the only entry left unchecked in the checklist. They told us not to worry, as it took not more than 4-5 days for a cargo like this to come from Goa to Bombay.
I pressed the panic button only in the morning, one day before the shoot. Suddenly no one was available on the phone to give us a status. The owner was suddenly in a flight to London, his deputy was out of office and his cell off, no one lower than him in the hierarchy knew anything of any car being brought in from Goa. There was no paperwork in their office for anyone to follow up on them. There was a holiday in their Goa factory so no dispatch guy, who would know, was available…
Since the San Storm is an open car, we had not made provisions for lighting up the inside. In any case we were not carrying any generator in our odyssey. Only a few pocket powers.
I remember I did not leave home that whole day. A lot of packing kept happening at the production office. A very early call time was given to everyone to meet at a point where the caravan would lift off.
At around 2 o clock in the morning, just a few hours before we were to start (by then we had decided, we would shoot the film using Parth’s horrible, dirty, green Palio and Shanker had also increased his light requirement by a few in-car stuff) I managed to get through to the owner of San Storm Motors in London. I must have howled on the phone. Soon my phones began ringing, bringing in the harrowing details of the two cars’ journey into Bombay and then outside.
The cars were put in a carrier with two drivers and no papers. The drivers managed to off load them outside the octroi limits and then drove them inside. None of them had any license plate either. Naturally the traffic cops caught them. It seems they negotiated, bribed and managed to take the cars back, out of the octroi limits. This was around midnight. Soon the drivers were exhausted and left with no money for either fuel or food. But they managed to make one call to their boss, “parked their cars ‘somewhere’ and were sleeping in the cars (dead to the world), waiting for you to find them and take delivery” – This was the second last message I received at around 3.30 am. The last message being, “Somewhere in Vashi”!
The following is verbatim from my dairy that I kept of the shooting (albeit for just the few initial days)
October 30, 2004
Parth and Shriram (My friend from Indian Oil, also the one whose suggestion turned the ‘Burnout’ concept into ‘TGIB’) picked me up around 5.30 am in the former’s Palio. I had given up hopes on the San Storm. It was still dark when we crossed the Vashi toll Naka. I was about to take the flyover when I saw two tiny shiny dots on the side of the road that went straight under the flyover. My heart missed a beat. I went straight ahead, avoiding the flyover and as I approached, the dots grew bigger. Two brand new black San Storms were parked right on the main road, open-hooded, no sign of anybody near them! The three of us hugged each other in enjoyment and ran out of our car. The drivers were sleeping inside like dead men. We woke them up, gave them money, took the cars and drove off. There was not a shred of documentation about the cars in them.
Parth and Shriram drove the cars and I drove the Palio. We reached Belapur, across the Siemens Building, on the highway and waited.
Slowly the unit began to accumulate at the same point. At around 8.30 the whole unit started moving towards our first point, a pond near the Karnala bird sanctuary. Earlier, in our recces, this was just a pond, but today it was full with white lotuses in full bloom! (White Lotus Films is also the name of my film company and it was named much before this day, hence the exhilaration and the mention)
(And of course, by then the San Storms were filled up to their capacity, almost everyone senior in the unit had taken at least one joy ride on either and while we waited at Belapur the efficient Art Department guys had made and fixed license plates on both the cars. Some bloke told them to copy Parth’s car’s license plate number on them. So at the end we had three cars with the same license plate numbers. We had a huge debate later as who was the bloke. Everyone maintains that it was I, but I still refuse to agree.)
We reached Karnala at around 10.30. It took us some time unload the camera and other things. Sandhya and Aamir did their make up on the road under a tree. (We did not have a vanity van throughout our shoot) Finally we canned the first shot from across the pond, where Meera thumps the boot and brings out a flask and two cups.
We kept shooting till about 12.30 pm. Uniformed forest officials, who we initially thought, were cops, interrupted us once. Manoj (Our production controller) took care of them. (Manoj kept ‘managing’ the cops all the time throughout the shoot as we shot this entire film on the road with not a single permission! It was impossible to have permissions from all the zillas and districts and panchayats that we traversed)
We took some brilliant hand held shots and then moved out in a rush towards Mahad. (Shanker has this thing of painting with his camera. Almost throughout the shoot, he held the camera up to his chest with bare hands – no special grip except for a broad waist belt to save his back – infinitesimally chasing moments of truths as they unfolded)
Almost halfway through, I get a frantic call on my cell as soon as it catches signal. I am driving a San Storm and also carrying the keys to the other one! Can you imagine the plight of Shriram and Manoj who were left behind? Everyone had packed up and gone one by one. And they were the last ones and soon they realized they didn’t have the key to the car and also couldn’t reach anyone on the cell. And no one in the world knew that they had been left behind.
Shanker was with me. Everyone else was ahead of us. We took a U turn and went back to hand over the keys to a sweetly cheezed off Shriram.
We reached the Mahad river front at around 3 pm. Drove at almost 100 kmph to gain on the lost time. Quite a thing to do on a tiny, open two-seater.
We weren’t that late. The others had just begun their lunch. Finished the scene where Meera says ‘I’ve told them we’ve stopped having sex’ in three takes by 4 pm. There was no time to reach anywhere else and shoot more. Lights would have gone. It was already going by the time we packed up. As the unit packed, Shanker and I exposed 130 feet of left overs of a can to shoot some candid hi-speed shots of ripples in water, out of focus interesting images. (These saved us! I’ll tell you later about this)
There was a long sequence to be canned as per the schedule. I have left it for tomorrow. But instead took some car montages in the available light. Spoke to Neena (My wife). She was wondering all through the day, what must be happening to all of us…
Stopped shooting at around 6 pm and drove straight to Chiplun. End of day 1!
The hotel in Chiplun sucks. But who cares. I’m finally shooting my film. And I’m sleepy.
I thought I would, but was too stressed to remember to look through the viewfinder of the 35mm film camera today. Have never done it till date. First thing tomorrow!
PS. Guys, TGIB is not releasing on the 4th as was initially announced by the distributors. Welcome to indie film making! We do not have a fresh date though there is a talk of shifting it by a few weeks. Keeping my wringed fingers crossed.
Tags: debut, Shanker Raman, shooting, TGIB, The Great Indian Butterfly
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
Loved the candid narration. Its always a treat to read insights into what really goes into making a movie, one damned frame after another. Keep writing, Sarthak. Looking fwd to TGIB. Cheers.
Twist n turns makes a wonderful story . good going Sir !!
but its disappointing to hear that you dont have a release date now :(
Wow! Sarthak very interesting stuff there.Finishing the shooting in such a manner must have involved a lot of dedication and a little bit of luck I guess.Keep enthralling us with more such details.I’m sure the fresh release date will be known soon.All the best for that.
wow! must have been a roller coaster ride ;-)
sarthak-da, unforgettable memories of your labour’s first gem. im sure u will hv more such memories for many films that u wud make in the future, but TGIB will always remain closest to ur heart! amen to that!
.
whn do u get the likely confirmation of the revised date of release? we r waiting as eagerly as u r, ell, almost.. coz u will always b the most affected..
I love your posts man. Makes me feel like I am a part of the action, sitting across the globe. Good job keep it up.
SarthakDa,
While reading through this, I suddenly found my heart in my mouth when the twin steeds couldn’t be found. And then there was joy when the two specks were seen on the side of the road!
I burst out laughing when I read that the actors did their makeup under a tree! We – minions at film school, pull stunts like that. I guess indie filmmaking is such, and ooh, the thrill of not shooting master shots!
I wish TGIB releases before I return to LA. I have been reading your blog for so long that I feel like I have met you and these stories have been uttered over hot coffee, and that I too have a certain misplaced claim over TGIB. I want to sit in a Bombay theatre and go down a non-existant memory lane when I see the car, or see Sandhya delivering that line.
Regards
Very interesting read.
All the best for your film.
I am new to PFC, and your’s is one of the first blogs i have read…really good…i am eagerly waiting for the film to release…
A thrilling read. Makes me feel a part of the team. I sincerely hope that TGIB gets a release soon.
the fun part begins, yay
i can see how much fun making a film can be (with all the stress ofcourse 
)
“You don’t dream in more angles than one!” agreed. but its a movie! audience needs to see the scene through multiple angles. so once you get that budget, we should see more coverage in your films
coverage only as much as you will use. you see dreams in interesting angles. You’ll find the angles in TGIB interesting too. you won’t miss the the angles we didn’t shoot. i hope.
Hey your film is white lotus… the poster says white feather art house. Is TGIB a art movie??
Splendid description Sir. The plot is yet unrevealed, the crew is dedicated and smart, actors too are talented ones, the director is (_!_) From this, I realize one thing – I want a ride in a San Storm.
Loved the narration Sarthak. Eagerly awaiting the release of TGIB.Admire your vision!
I saw the film at the Osian Cine Fan last year…The whole concept of happiness is so beautiful. Since then i am waiting for its release…Hope you get the final dates for the release soon….and also hoping to see something new at this years Osian’s.Wish you all the best for the film and you future ahead.
There is always ‘method in mess’ … it’s only to be uncovered…
Humans like me usually find the method after the event to make me Wiser rather than Smarter:)
Entire team seems to be smart enough to create a good piece for Cinema.
Look forward for interesting part of “Hi speed shoots of Water Ripples” and more!!!
Great post , Sarthak! Congratulations on having completed that arduous shoot and best of luck for getting the film released ASAP! Btw, I used to study in a college opposite that Siemens building in Belapur and if I’d seen a film unit assemble there when I was studying I might have left college and joined your unit
!!
@Sarthak
Got this link on web to download music of TGIB.
http://www.troovaaudio.com/MusicList.php?mid=1826
Does it contain authentic songs, didnt listen anything from anyone regarding the music of TGIB.
Would be great if you could throw some light on its music also. Will surely post my feedback after listening songs.
Any news on the release date of TGIB.
Hi
I write for a national daily, can you plz suggest how to get in touch with you
Rgds