The First Action Sequence- Goregaon west.

An action sequence is always an exciting event. It is one of the ideal instances of "the art of film making"....wherein the tricks and gimmicks of the technicians come into play.

Someone hits...someone is hurt...glass breaks...blood flows... furniture is scattered... but in fact nothing of that sort happens!...Provided of course all the necessary precautions are taken!

On our appointed day, all the precautions were taken. Mr. Moses and Kaushal were our action masters. The sequence had been worked out with them. The actors- Sanjay Narvekar and Girish Salvi- had been briefed about the sequence and we were ready.

However this was the same location wherein we were running behind schedule due to property supply delays on the first day and subsequent add ons that followed. At such times like many other, there is only one person who can be looked upon to save the day- The Director.

For, if he remains adamant and refuses to change the shot, there is nothing that anyone can do except relent and compensate the damage else where.

However Uttung did have the broader perspective on most things and likewise he decided on a one shot sequence. The camera would be hand held and will follow the artist in a marked area.

This helps save time on lighting up again and again as the actors will be moving in a certain area which is marked to them by the cameraman. However the flip side is that they need to get it right at first go since the stock/ film being exposed is wasted, if multiple re-takes of such a long sequence take place!!

Thus, the rehearsals began. A lot many times in this film I've valued the importance of good artists- Sanjay Narvekar, Bharat Jadhav, Girish Salvi, Satish Pulekar...etc have all delivered as they are known to and that's helped a lot in fighting time.

Once the rehearsals were done with, we did a camera rehearsal, after which we rolled. The sequence was canned as expected and was Okayed!

A little trivia that i cant help but mention here was my anxiousness about something that had nothing to do with the film!! ...

Now, the character that Girish Salvi portrays is a very pompous character and hence i thought it would be nice if he carried not one but two cell phones in his hand.

At the moment when i thought about this we were shooting in Worli and the closest phone i had was my own. I gave it to him!!

Now on a new day, at a new place Girishji very promptly asked for my phone while the lighting was taking place!! Although i had remembered about the phone i was in two minds because of the violent nature of the sequence and hence i whispered to Girishji that he should slip the phone into his pocket before going for Sanjay Narvekar's throat!! he very sweetly agreed with my point of view.

Although he did precisely that; in one of the takes the phone landed straight on the floor and got kicked and trampled!!!!!! The effects of which I'm enduring up till now.

As such if anyone does call me remember to cut the call from your end after our conversation is over for my call disconnect button hasn't worked since then!! :)

Goregaon-4th Nov to 8th Nov.

Three days of shooting was over.

The first three days are the most crucial for any film shoot. By then the unit gets familiar with each other and most importantly your body and mind gets used to a completely new lifestyle that consists of-18 hour work days. There is no life beyond the film set. When you leave the house, all are sleeping; when you return, all have already gone to sleep. At times despite the shooting being in Mumbai it makes no sense to go home if you are staying longer than a 45 minute travel. As such we had got into the groove now.

We had finished filming at the most demanding location- The 180 sq. ft room in B.D.D chawl ...things were only going to get comfortable from here on...so we thought!

Our next stop was at Gorgaon west, close to Patkar College. We were going to film here for 5 days. This was going to be Sanjay Narvekar's house in the film. However what we got in hand was an empty space. There was a lot of work to be done. We had the look in mind but personnel and time were our constraints. While we were completing our Worli shoot the previous day, Painting and other propping up had begun at Goregaon...we were expecting the location all ready to shoot the next day. However we were in for a shock!

The property hire guy had not delivered the property! The house of an ambitious, smart and tasteful guy(Sanjay's Character in film) was all empty and barren!!

Uttung(Director) decided there was no point in waiting endlessly...property had to be arranged, and so he sent a tempo to his place!! Most of the property you will see in Sanjay Narvekar's house in the film was brought from Uttung's house!!

We were behind schedule but we had the next 4 days to catch up!! We believed, since the location was not as cramped as the previous one we could increase the speed.

However as we reached the last day we realised that we were still behind schedule! That day we were joined for the first time by our heroine- Ashwini Apte. There was a very crucial sequence to be filmed...rain machine and thunder machine were called for.

We could not start the sequence early 'coz it required the sun to set...some shots were changed and dialogues reworked. It is often a call that needs to be taken regarding making changes to fit in a schedule, yet retaining the beauty of the content.

The sun finally did set and we were ready to begin..the rain machine was tested and so was the thunder machine but as we were about to roll the first hiccup happened. There was reverse current generated, camera was passing electric current, Lights were getting switched off.

Light men were frantically trying to locate the fault. I knew we could not finish today. I spoke to Uttung and he felt the same. I asked the still photographer to click pictures of the flat as we would have to come to shoot here after a few days since our next 10 days were already blocked.

After repeated attempts that took around 3-4 hours the problem could not be solved! We had to pack up. There were two sequences that could not be accommodated- one was between Sanjay Narvekar and Girish Salvi, while the other was this particular rain sequence between Sanjay and Ashwini. There was no point in brooding we had to keep moving come with a better plan.

It was past 1.00 a.m. when we packed up on the last day at Goregaon hence there was one more decision to take- should we keep a late shift the next day or should we cancel shoot. It was decided to cancel the next day shoot.

8 days of shooting was over...it was touch and go. We were racing at all times. A lot of creative decisions had to be altered to fit the best in whatever time we had.

Thus as of now we were to meet at Visage Studio, Jogeshwari the next day wherein we had put up our Bank set...from 10th Nov to 13th Nov we would be shooting at the bank. Large space of course but so would be the number of artists! But the fact was that- we were half through our first schedule.

(NEXT POST- ACTION SEQUENCE BETWEEN SANJAY NARVEKAR AND GIRISH SALVI)