what we are reading – EightandHalf
The first trailer of Milan Luthria’s new film Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai is out. Have a look. The video quality is not very good.
Its produced by Ektaa Kapoor and stars Ajay Devgan, Emraan Hashmi, Kangna Ranaut and Prachi Desai. Its based on Mumbai’s underworld of 70′s. Ajay’s character is based on Haji Mastan and Emraan will play Dawood Ibrahim.
As the promotional campaign and the title of the film suggests, the official synopsis of the film says the same too. If you are still interested, here it is…
‘I hate luv storys’ is the maxim Jay lives by. But as an assistant director to Veer, the most famous romantic filmmaker of Indian Film Industry, Jay has little option but to live with larger than life, glossy, cinematic love on an everyday basis. Things only get worse when he is made to work under the new production designer on the film… Simran, with whom he shares the strangest first encounter!
Simran loves luv storys; So much so that even her life has begun to resemble one. With her ideal job and the perfect boyfriend, Raj, she lives a blissful, dreamy life; One that is rudely interrupted by Jay’s cynicism.
The turmoil’s of Jay and Simran’s life, is ironically interweaved with the Luv Story that they are working on…. But will Jay and Simran ever find their own Luv Story – go find it out in a theatre near you on 2nd July.
So, Raj & Simran have become Jai & Simran! Aur bolo! Though we still feel that “Hate” is the key word in our dictionary as far as this film is concerned, but have to admit that it got a supercool official website. Beats everything else that we have seen in recent times. Click here to check it out.
Music is by Vishal-Shekhar and Lyrics by Anvita Dutt, Kumaar & Vishal Dadlani. And here is the first song promo of the film…
And if you missed it earlier, the first trailer of the film….
Time to forget the teaser! Now the full trailer is out…almost 2mins long. Check it out! Wanna shout…Go Vikram go, just kill Raavan!
The film has been ready for quite sometime and made few headlines because of some nude & kissing scenes. Finally the first trailer of the film is out. Scroll down and check out the video.
The film is directed by Sudipto Chattopadhyay and stars Bipasha Basu, Maradona Rebello, Mahesh Manjrekar and Lillete Dubey. Its produced by Sanjay Gupta’s White Feathers Art House Films. Yes, yes, you heard it right. Please dont ROFLOL!
Actor Arshad Warsi has turned producer with his new film Hum Tum Aur Ghost. The film was earlier titled Kaun Bola ? Its directed by Kabeer Kaushik, who made a superb debut with Sehar. But nobody knows how he lost the plot in his next film Chamku. Was it the Deols-who-dont-die in films ?
Hum Tum Aur Ghost stars Arshad Warsi, Dia Mirza, Sandhya Mridul and Boman Irani. Can anyone smell Ghost Town ? As always in bollywood, Arshad clarified that after he wrote the script hi freinds told him that it sounds like Ghost Town. Otherwise he had no clue.
The filmmaker, oops, pottymaker is back! He made his feature directorial debut with Heyy Potty and claimed himself as “The King Of The World”. Here is the first trailer of his new film Housefull. Expect more of banana peel and poo poo jokes! Looks like a strange cocktail of lot of films that you have seen.
The film is produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and stars Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Ritesh Deshmukh, Arjun Rampal, Lara Dutta, Malaika Arora, Randhir Kapoor, Jiah Khan, Jacqueline Fernandez and Boman Irani.
The first trailer of Mahesh Manjrekar’s new film City Of Gold is out. Check it out.
This one had lot of promise, till we saw the trailer. The premise, setting, time, incidents and an untold story. But from the trailer it looks too tacky! City Of Gold is set in Mumbai’s mills era. Here is the official synopsis of the film…
Today, there is hardly anyone who hasn’t visited the swanky shopping malls, nightclubs, lounge bars, clubs and other such lifestyle destinations that sprung up across the centre of Mumbai. However, very few know that buried deep below these glittering edifices to consumerism lies the dark, dirty and painful reality of many thousands of mill workers who once worked the cotton mills in this very same area. Rising and toiling to the wail of the mill sirens each and every day, seven days a week, these workers embodied the true unbridled zeal and unflagging spirit of the city and played a pivotal role in the evolution of Mumbai as the modern day business capital of India.
And then it suddenly was as if they never existed. Following the mill workers strike in the mid-80s, these mills began closing down rapidly and the mill-workers mysteriously disappeared. What happened to them, and where they went is one of the most shameful secrets that the city of Mumbai will have to bear for generations, one that until now has always been spoken about in hushed whispers.
City of Gold – the story of these long-forgotten masses – not only explores the apathy of these mill workers narrated through the story of one such family, but is also a take-no-prisoners account of the birth of the true underbelly of organized crime in Mumbai.
The film traces the birth of the politics of greed in Mumbai and exposes the unholy collusion between the triumvirate of big business, the political establishment and the trade union leaders who ostensibly were charged with protecting the rights of the mill workers. In the two decades that followed, the entire landscape of Central Mumbai was changed forever. Land became the currency of growth, and this began the systematic extinction of mills in Mumbai. In a matter of just a few years, hundreds of thousands of workers lost their means of livelihood. Having worked in these mills from generation to generation, this was the only vocation that they knew.
Many left Mumbai and went back to their ancestral homes, some others chose to stay back and fight what they soon realised was a losing battle, some took the extreme step of ending their miserable lives, and still some others took to a world of crime.
Truth… as is said, is stranger than fiction. But the truth that the film uncovers is not just stranger but darker and dirtier than any mind has ever imagined. Produced by DAR Motion Pictures and from the Director of dark and realistic films like Vaastav – Mr Mahesh Manjrekar, ‘City of Gold’ takes another trip down memory lane…. just that this time around the result is a much more heart wrenching, soul stirring and shocking film about human avarice and apathy.
The film doesn’t provide any direct solutions. Yet it shatters many a myth and raises many a question which only the passage of time will provide answers to.
To know more about the film, click here for the official website.
First it was Madhuri Dixit and now its Kartik Krishnan. Rarely do people manage to get a film title based on their name. No, we dont want to count Ramu here. Thats for another day.
The 70 min film has been directed by Srinivas Sunderrajan. The cast includes Kartik Krishnan, Vishwesh K, Swara Bhaskar and D Santosh. Its shot by Hashim Badani and is written by Srinivas Sunderrajan & Vijesh Rajan. While trying to pitch his feature, Srini has been told by few that tu toh bachcha dikhta hai (which he does. 26 ka hai bus!), abhi film kya direct karega. Well, now he can throw the dvd on their face.
So while we wrote blogs, spread goss, struggled with writing and did tweet-twat, the bachchas got together and shot this film in less than 70k. Its been shot on Sony HDV Z1 in 30 days over a period of one year. And there are more twists in its making than in the film. Read on.
Many of you must have already seen the trailer. If not, click on the play button.
Over to KK.
Flashback
The 1st draft of the script was ready and emailed to me on Feb 20th 2009 by the director and my friend Srinivas Sunderrajan with a instruction in CAPS saying ‘BANIYAN KHAREED” (helpful in attaching the lapel mike to the actor). We begin the actor rehearsals. The screenplay is in place but no dialogues. “Why?” I asked. “Because I want to improvise it”
Preparations
When the Locations would be available for say a Saturday, the actors would meet on a Wednesday for a reading and rehearse under Srinivas’ instructions. If some interesting lines came about in the reading, they would be kept. A framework would be developed with the actors being given a free hand to fill in the meat. No sticking to lines, but simply improvising, but being in the scene, being in character.
Shoot begins
All wide shots, long takes. Minimal cut-aways. Not necessarily adhering to traditional style shooting of covering a scene from all angles. Also this was done because we used to get the location for not more than 2 hours (read: Location). And there used to be at least 4 scenes (average) per location. The lapel mike works sometimes, and sometimes you have to keep the battery cover pressed down for it to work. So someone off-screen would do that (Mostly the director himself)!
Slowly it is falling into place.
Crew
Barring the actors, there used to be max. 3 people on the set – Srinivas (director), Hashim (Camera), and sometimes a friend to just help us out. But most of the time, it used to be just the two of them. Some locations, had one guy for lights.
We are our own costume designers, makeup men, location in-charge, food & catering. We lose our cool most of the times due to the high level of multi-tasking, but Srinivas’ level headedness kept us going. All actors/crew (except Srinivas) having day jobs and other assignments, postponing a day of shoot meant waiting at least for a week for the same location & all our dates to match.
Locations
There were 4 main locations in the film – KK’s flat, KK’s Office, Drinks Bar, Coffee shop. Coffee shop turned out to be an expensive affair so we had to settle in for a “sweet mart” which also had seating space for customers. With the help of Srinivas’ friend, we barged into one and finished two huge scenes in a span of 2 hours and before the owners could even realize what was happening – we vacated the premise.
For the drinks bar location, we had to visit the bar a couple of times, befriend the waiters, and then bribe them into letting us into the place to shoot early in the morning. So basically, 5am shifts wherein we used to enter the location via the backdoor, and then complete shoot before 9am because that’s when the main owner opens the front door shutter! We again had 3 long scenes at this venue and so we had to re-visit the location twice till Srinivas got everything he wanted.
KK’s flat was the cinematographer Hashim’s grandmother’s flat in Mohd.Ali road. Hashim had to basically trick the building people into saying that it was a student film and Srinivas’ ‘I’m still in college/school’ look came in handy! It was the most difficult location because the house was very near to the JJ Flyover and the sound pollution levels were maximum. To top it all, the house was on a slant so we had to basically balance ourselves while delivering our lines.
Intermission point
60% of the scenes are shot at this location in Mohd. Ali Road. The location is crucial because that’s the house of the protagonist, Kartik Krishnan.
Due to some major ‘postponements’ and ‘date issues’, we could not finish the 40% as pre-decided. Srinivas, by now, has spent half his year trying to get us all under one roof for a very crucial scene of the film – the ‘film shoot sequence’. Just when things try to brighten up, a call from Srinivas – “One section of the 3rd floor (our shooting floor) falls onto the 2nd floor. The building has been cordoned off by BMC and will be broken down in the next 6 days”.
We’re in a fix – Whether to risk our lives and finish the 40% in those 6 days or just figure out another location. Risking life seems stupid but the only “indie solution” here! Srinivas is in two minds about the whole film now since any other location would break the whole flow-chart.
Time lapse clouds
I don’t hear from Srinivas for quite sometime. I guess no one from the crew has any news about him or the film. What to do when you have completed close to 60% of the film and a location in continuity is unavailable and you have a completely absconding director? Drink booze? We do. Luckily our director is a tee-teetotaler (edit: And still is!)
Few months later
I’ve moved on to a new job. Also to a newer house. I get a call from Srinivas saying “I’ve cut a scene from the film – do you want to take a look?” Hell yeah!
Srinivas comes home and shows me the first interaction scene between Kartik Krishnan and Srinivas Sunderrajan. I like it. He seems positive of finishing the film – we talk about my dates etc. Things look bright.
A few days later, another phone call from him. “Dates clashing”, “Crew unavailable”, “Life moves on!”
Welcome 2010, bye 2009
Fresh look. Use the existing footage. Shoot something else. Build a new story around it. See if it works. It does. So it seems. But not all actors are available. REWRITE according to the available resources. Film becomes something else.
“I’ve got an idea to finish the film without involving everyone. I’ve already edited the film and written a rough script for the new version. You game?” – Srinivas
Shoot begins – again
Early morning 4am in local trains. 10 am versova beach. 11.30 local train to panvel. My house. Montage shots. Stock shots. B-rolls. Painful edit process.
Shoot complete
Post production which was simultaneously happening, now needs to be addressed single mindedly. Does it all fit? Does it hold attention? Does the new story work? Is the VFX looking tacky? Inhibitions and doubts.
Screening for the cast
I saw it twice the same night. Seemed to hold. Long Takes kind of work. Don’t know what the audience will say.
CUT TO – PRESENT
Some talk about the festivals. Undecided. We are trying to spread the word. FB, twitter, mails. We’re hoping the film finds its own course.
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 
