7. One Day At Yashraj

It was February 2011 ..

I had just come back from Ladakh from the shoot of my first film as assistant director. It was great experience and again I wasn’t given much money for it. Merely 13000 were given and I didn’t mind because I got the chance to visit Ladakh and become chief Assistant Director.  I was clueless what to do next. I was looking for some work. Saini, the art director from Soundtrack who gave me my first work as art director and second work overall in Mumbai, was not going to take me back I assumed as I had left the movie in between but he did call me for a day on the sets of soundtrack when I called him back for work, but the experience of one day was so terrible that then I myself never went back. I hated being in the team of art directors. Assistant art directors (male) are like dogs and anyone can scold them on set and say anything and for the sake of job they have to tolerate it. They are advised to listen to everyone without uttering anything. I will tell you about my art direction experiences later. Senior assistant art guys could reply to Assistant directors but I was new and I was told to listen to everyone and anything that is being said. I was getting fed up of the disrespected way art directors were treated on sets. I had decided that I will never do art direction work ever. Another motivation of mine never to work in art direction was that Saini only gave me 10000 rupees that too after so much insistence, though I was promised 80,000 once. I know it was too much and he might have just said it to me during my initial days with him because he was impressed with me but I worked for nearly four months and all I got was 10k. In between I also did three ad films for him for which he never paid me anything. Saini didn’t give me money but he gave me the ample amount of experience I needed to get more jobs later. Now, I wanted to be the one commanding not the one commanded.  But that didn’t happen any sooner.

So, I was chasing this guy called Tanmay, chief Assistant Director of the first film that I did in Mumbai. It was called ‘Love’ but at that time it was called “Doors”. I would occasionally call him and ask him for work and somehow I had this feeling that he didn’t like me. I had only vague idea about what he used to do which few other on set have told me. He has worked in Yashraj Films and continued to do so. The film we did together was just a favor he was doing for the director, who was his friend and also roommate. When I first met Tanmay he was asked by the producer of the film to interview me for direction as few minutes earlier, producer had asked me what I wanted to do in my life and though I was in production department I told him that I wanted to be a director. Frankly at that time I had no idea what I wanted to become. I have no clue what was going inside my head. Tanmay took me to another room and asked me several questions.

“Have you watched Bergmen?”

“Yes” I had seen few.

“Have you seen films of Fellini”

“Yes” I had seen trailers of his films.

“Have you seen films of Gurudutt”

“Yes” none, I had seen none of his film.

“Have you seen films of Scorsese”

“yes” yeah all of them, in order of them getting made. I loved him.

And the final interview question was –

“Have you seen films of Tarkovski”

And my answer was –

“Yes” I had watched three films of Tarkovski – Stalker, Andrei Rublyev and Half of Solaris.

And I told him the name of the films of Tarkovski I had seen. Surprisingly I had seen films of Tarkovski which most directors in Mumbai have never even heard of. What I didn’t know at that time was that the director, Abhineet and Tanmay were big fans of Tarkovski and their parameter for someone to become a good director was to watch, analyze and understand Tarkovski.

“You are ready to become a director. Can you do clap ?”

“Yes”

“Have you done clap before ?”

“No”

“No worries, I will teach you.” He never taught me how to clap which led to an embarrassing 

incident after which I decided never to clap again in my life, but I did.

But this is another story. Let’s digress to the story I was about to tell you about my experience of 

working for one day in the biggest production house of the country.

Disclaimer : The experience was good but not great out of the world thing.

So Tanmay called me one noon and asked me whether I could fill in for one day as assistant director for a film called “Mere Brother ki Dulhan” which stars Imraan Khan and Katrina Kaif. Thanks to the technology at that time, he couldn’t see on phone but I was dancing with joy in my 180 sq ft. room (yes, it was a room, not an apartment) hearing that and I pretended too hard to sound normal. First it was Yashraj Films and second it was Katrina Kaif, third I felt lucky that I got to work in Yashraj films so early in my life. I was excited way too early for that. It was a disaster day for me as I couldn’t sleep anymore.

But I was happy. I was so happy that I couldn’t sleep that night. I was so high with adrenaline that I couldn’t sleep. Finally, I slept at around two and woke up at Three. I was asked by Tanmay to be on set around 6. I reached the place around 4:30 Am. It was still dark. I was so excited that I reached one and half hour early. I felt like such an idiot. Any ways, the location was near churchgate station so I went back to churchgate station and drank tea and ate bun makhan and jam. I came back and still there was no one. There were security guards in the nearby buildings and I confirmed from them whether the name of the place I was in was right or not. It was right. It was too early to call Tanmay to ask him whether he was coming or not. The only thing I could do was wait. I didn’t want to do anything wrong the first day of the dream job. I was also feeling sleepy as I hadn’t slept whole night. I waited waited waited and around six, suddenly a paraphernalia of vanity vans, trucks and cars surrounded the area in front of me. I was looking at the whole commotion in the area in complete awe. The place which was five minutes earlier was as dead as mummies of Egypt was now as alive as the website of Pornhub.

I was watching everyone doing something. Everyone seemed really busy there, except me who was standing at one corner with his heavy bag behind him and confusion on face. At that time, I had this tendency to take my bag everywhere. I had no idea what to do there so I stood right at one corner doing nothing and waiting for Tanmay who I thought would guide me about what to do and what is my job here. I was told already that there was no pay or credits. There was a breakfast section and some were having breakfast. I decided since I am called there by someone from the crew so that makes me eligible too for having the breakfast. I eat the breakfast as fast as I could without chewing much. For some reason, I didn’t want anyone to see my having breakfast, and the truth was no one cared. But I was really afraid eating the breakfast, afraid of someone from the crew asking me whether I am part of the crew to eat breakfast.  Except Tanmay, I realized no one must be knowing that I have come to work there. I was feeling like Amitabh Bachchan in Don film when the only inspector who knows that he is not Don dies and Amitabh Bachchan has to prove that he is not Don to everyone, except my situation was opposite and Tanmay was still alive. Anyways, the things were getting set around the place. I finished the breakfast. Took a napkin and started strolling around and witnessing how a big production house works. I was so engrossed in watching them work that I didn’t want to lose a moment of that working. I threw the napkin after I rubbed my hands on the ground. 

Suddenly a voice comes from behind.     

“Ye Napkin kisne dala hai yahan”

I casually turned behind to see two people.

One was a beautiful girl wearing some pajama kind of pants and t-shirt and another was a man who looked like an actor himself, wearing banadana on is head, cargos way down and off white T-shirt in the middle. The girl was the Chief Assistant Director Karishma Kohli and the Director was Ali Abbas Zafar.

They were looking at me in anger. I politely turned, picked the dirty napkin I had threw few moments back and threw it back in the dustbin. Inside I was terrified. Somehow I knew he was the director by the way he was standing. I was already terrified and this had made me melt inside. My whole excitement went down the drain. My first impression in the eyes of Director was that this guy has no work ethics.

Finally, Tanmay came and I was so happy to see him like a dog sees his owner after getting lost in the city. He was the only face I knew in that whole crew. Tanmay told me that I have to look after crowd controlling. He asked me to take a walkie talkie and then coordinate with other Ads. He was quite helpful and caring that day. He asked me whether I ate breakfast or not and I said no and then again ate breakfast. During Lunch, he took me to the director’s Vanity van and I was got to eat good food there.

Will tell you later in another blog, what happened on the shoot.