Shooting - Day 2

Roll Camera !
Rolling !
ACTION !!

Heard it so many times that today on I can myself call the shots ! :)

Today was a super packed day in the terms of the amount of work we needed to do. We had to do some 8-9 scenes today and even though we had planned our day properly, this was a difficult task to achieve.

We started the day early - Raghav and me went and picked up the children( Mohan and Kaviraj) at five forty five in the morning. Along with the children, their fathers also came. Since yesterday, I had been thinking of all the things that we needed to take care of for today - Thought of all the props( called as property ) required for each scene, cordination of the artists and the crew and I was pretty confident that I had covered everything. Once we left in the morning,I also called Rahul ( a friend who has been a part of this project ) , to find out if their cab ( which also contained the camera man) had started . I got an affirmation for that and I called Sunil who also assured me that he had started too. Chitkala, Neelam were coming an hour later in another cab. Well ! I was pretty much satisfied that we had a good start today .

When, at around six thirty, Sunil calls me and asks - did you get Chitkala's bag ? At first I did not understand what he was asking . Then I struck me !! Mohan ( Arun) was using Chitkala's bag in his scene ! And the bag was coming with Chitkala. Which meant that we could start only when the bag came. Just as I was recovering from my shock, Sunil laughs and reassures me - I am at Chitkala's place and I will get the bag. Uff !

Meanwhile, our car and sumo containing the camera man and the crew went ahead to do the setup for the shoot. We had just completed setup when Sunil came and we were good to go ! What pace Sunil and Satish ( the camera man ) had today . They were literally running between the shots.

After shooting a little at the banyan tree, we ran into the fields behind . Took a few shots of Mohan ( Arun ) walking along the fields. Guess what ! I got to call the shots. I used my sense of beauty and camera to suggest a few scenes. And boy did they come well ! :) Couple of scenes at the field , when we realised that we needed to have a few children to play at the banyan tree. Raghav and me ran to the nearby village. The children were waiting for their school to open - we talked to an elderly man at the village, and got 3 boys and 3 girls for playing at the banyan tree.

Again got a good creative scene by Sunil ! And we were done for that location ! We were on time so far -- it was 9 am in the morning . I had already asked Chitkala and Neelam to be ready for their shots . Next, we had our breakfast and went to Sunil's favorite spot - the timber yard.

Covered the various activities at the timberyard with Arun watching it with wonder . We had almost completed 80% of the scene, when it started raining :( We lost about half an hour between 11 45 to 12 15. We resumed shooting and completed the timber yard at around one pm. By the time, the bus from the ashram with the kids of the ashram had come. Sunil decided to complete the bus scene, so that the bus can be sent as soon as possible. In spite of hurrying a lot, we could complete the scene only at around 2 45 . We then took a break and fed all the children. Gosh ! even I was really hungry by then and the food was a welcome ! The best part of today was that Ravi guruji and his wife Gayatri guruji( from the SSY ashram and gurukulam) had come to watch the shooting. And what a child like enthusiasm they had:) I got to know Gayatri guruji closely - among other things that we discussed I got to hear the interesting story on how she and Ravi guruji met each other and got married to each other :)

Anyways, the shooting resumed at around three thirty - we got a quick last scene inside the bus and sent the bus and the children back. :) And then we started all the scenes where we have all the four characters ( Arun, satish, stranger and satish's mom ) . These scenes were getting done at break neck speed - and for the first time, I wasnt enjoying the shoot - but somewhere we needed to compromise - we did not have too much of time and lot of work was to be done. I just sat in one corner - honestly speaking, I was a little tired too.

And then it rained again at 4 30 or so - and continued to rain till five fifteen. :( Now we knew we couldnt complete the shooting today - so we concentrated on completing Neelam and Kaviraj's scenes so that they neednt come again for another day .

Well we packed up at five thirty , with around 3 scenes pending. Right now, we dont know when is the third day of the shoot - its definitely not tomorrow.

Readers of this blog - I will keep you all informed ! :)

Meanwhile - checkout Rahul's twitter updates for the past two dates at http://twitter.com/rahuljha

Shooting - Day 1

Cannot tell you all how much I enjoyed the shooting today. Dont know if I have mentioned in this space that we changed the railway station to a village bus stop. Let me describe how the day went.

We started my place at 7 am in the morning and reached the location at around 8.30 - that itself was an hour later than when we wanted to start. Then the breakfast came late and by the time, we could start the shoot it was 10.30. We wanted to start at around 9 or 9 30. But then the actual shooting more than compensated for all the disappointments of the day.

We started with the first scene where the boy walks along the nature's trail. Gosh ! I was so amazed by Sunil's creativity, his team and the way he was in complete control of the shooting. He took the shots of this scene exactly or much better than what I had imagined in my mind. We shot Mohan ( Arun ) walking on the stone boulders and along the lake. And what shots the director took :) - I dont want to divulge more - coz it will spoil the fun for those of you who will be watching the movie.

After a gruelling 3 hours besides the lake , we decided to return back to have food and resume after that. We went back to have food at around 1.30 - but the food wasnt ready and by the time we came back after food it was around 2.30-3 pm. Then Chitkala had to get ready - she is doing the role of the stranger .

By the time she got ready it was around 4 pm. She comes out all ready with make up , false hair and all - and Sunil gives one look at her and blasts the makeup guy ! He wanted the artists with very little or no makeup . He makes the makeup guy to rub off the makeup he put - I am so glad he did that - Coz Chitkala started looking her playful , cute self again - with makeup the innocence on her face was gone. The false hair was also gone :) - so much for the hard work we did yesterday night !

Then we started the canteen scene. The scene was really very very picturesque ! But sadly, we couldnt complete the scene - coz it became dark by 5 30 . Sunil was growing impatient after 5 pm and was keeping all his assistants on their toes. Anyways, we couldnt complete the work planned for today . But the quality of the shots that we took more than compensated for the quantity of the shooting that actually happened.

I am more than satisfied actually and my heart is full :) !
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PS : It rained heavily in Bangalore today after 4 pm , but thankfully , there was no rain in Marlwadi !

The night before the shoot

Most of the things are taken care of - but I did not want to lose this opportunity to write about the night before the shoot.

The day started lazy as usual - and then I went to the ATM to withdraw money for paying the production house - I was so concerned about the money that - I lost my mobile ! So that made a bad start for the day !

And then since I was so put off - I went to sleep . Got up to go to the tailor to collect the blouses at around 6.30 pm - when I realized this tailor closes by 6 pm. In my mind I thought that I had completely ruined the day and tomorrow's shoot !

I go and check and see that the tailor is actually gone- Disappointed I go to the slum to prepare the children for tomorrow. Thankfully no hassles there .

Then I decide to go back to the tailor -to ask his neighbouring shop for the tailor's no. I get into the neighbouring shop - and start asking for the no. - when the shopkeeper's wife comes in from inside and says - 'Are you asking for the blouses ?' .

Bless the tailor's soul - He knew we needed the blouses for tomorrow - so he left it ready with the neighbours ! Gosh ! what a turn around that was !

Then we needed 'false hair' with some colour on it for Chitkala's look - Roamed around in Jayanagar till late in the night - did not find what we wanted. And finally we struck with a brilliant idea - we decided to 'water paint' the black coloured 'artificial hair' we had, to brown !! :)

Talked to Badri once I came home to check about the food, transport and to get a general idea of things. Things seem to be in control and good to go ! :)

Visit to the location with the camera man and asst. director

Yesterday Sunil, Badri, Satish( cameraman ) , Naveen ( asst. director ) and Aayee ( my mil ) went to the location again. We took permissions from the localites there about using the place for shoot.

Also the movie, requires a bus in the last scene. So, we went to the nearby Marwadi ashram and requested for the school bus of the gurukulam.( This ashram and the gurukulam belongs to SSY( www.ssy.org ) and is run by Rishi Prabhakar and Ravi Guruji ). We met Ravi Guruji and his wife Gayatri guruji at the Ashram. I was initially skeptical if the guruji would be ready to give us the bus. But then I was pleasantly surprised. He asked us if we needed children along with the bus :)

Also he mentioned that the ashram has seen a spate of movie makers wanting to make movies in the ashram or nearby localities.

Ok , now we are all set for the shoot. My only concern is the weather - Bangalore is cloudy these days.

Meeting Sunil Kumar Singh and Badri and freezing the dates for shoot :)

We met Sunil Kumar Singh( a well known theatre and movie director ) and Badri( Sunil's friend who is a dancer, theatre and movie personality himself ) yesterday. Had a long stimulating discussion on various aspects of this movie.

Today Sunil, Chitkala and me went to the location again. Sunil quite liked the location chosen - only he was concerned about the distance to reach the place - the place is atleast 40 km from my place.

Saw some locations on the way to Uttarahalli - liked them too - need to see though.

Spoke to the children and Neelam today about having the shoot next week. All of them seemed ready :)

A mock Shoot

We had a mock shoot last week and we did not quite like the results . So we decided to postpone the shooting for sometime.

A picnic to the location :)

Today Vasu, Chitkala,Vasu's friend , and the children Mohan and Kaviraj went to the shooting location . We had fun looking at the location again . The children went berserk :) . The played in the lake, swung on the banyan trees, jumped on the timber logs and generally ran around .

We marked the places we wanted to shoot. And spoke to a people around regarding getting their alignment for the shoot. And yes, we are ready for the d-day! :)