|
This is the story of my adventure on the film sets of Mumbai (Bombay) or
Bollywood. For two days I was on the film set of a movie called Chocolate. (http://www.nowrunning.com/film/preview.asp?movieNo=2320)
|
|
|
Here I am! thats me next to the red arrow! I know you can't really see that
it is me, but trust me, they had me put on this ugly blue sweater and I had a
bit of a beard growing after visiting the Guru Sai Baba and a bad Burmese haircut.
The guy here in the suit with the white hair was from upstate New York.
I was sitting with him for about 45 minutes before they filmed this scene. He
was telling me about his trip to Ladakh on the northern border of India. Nice
guy. Anyway, just before the scene the directors says "Hey get this guy outta
there (me), let's get a girl to sit there for the scene". So, I had to go to
the blurry background.
|
|
|
At the time, on the set, I thought this movie was going to be terrible. The
directors were yelling all the time and there were hundreds of indian
guys running around pretending to be working on the set. People in authority in
India
are always yelling, and there are always too many people around not knowing
what to do. This actress seemed really timid and weak. But in the movie she
looks great. I am very impressed with her and the movie. The editors did an
excellent job although they edited me out of everything. In those two days I
was on the set about 3 minutes made it to the film. I think the film
turned out very good. It´s a good thriller, clever (more so than most
Hollywood
films) and humorous. It’s an Indian movie so that means there are lots of songs
and dancing, but the songs are really good too. The only complaint I had is
that it was a little long, but I am a very impatient movie watcher. Most of the
reviews are only giving it 3 or 4 stars but I give it 4 1/2 stars, high
recommendations, so watch it if you can.
|
|
|
After this scene, there is another where they introduce another one of the
characters “Chip”. I ate lunch with this actor, he was one of the better actors
in the film, I think. We spent a long time filming that scene. I was one of
the 8 or so extras in the scene with two India actors. They made me
wear some tight jeans and a leather jacket. Me and two Polish guys played
“tough guys” standing behind one of the Indian actors. There was a Mexican guy
named Oscar who also was in the scene, you can see him just barely in the
movie, he is the one holding the gun. Only about 2 seconds of this scene make
it to the movie and I am not in it because the camera shot they use is facing
the wrong way. Also, the two very nice dutch girls I made friends with, who had
to put on very revealing clothing, were not in the scene.
|
|
|
I was also present at the filming of this AWESOME scene. Look, there are people
flying through the air! Amazing! It is mostly a music video, and the song is
great. I am going to get the soundtrack from the film. I was one of
the jerks in a tuxedo but I can´t spot myself, I watched the scene
about 3 times and that was enough. The scene probably took about 3
days of filming for the 3 minutes that are in the film, I was there only for
the first day. This day was extremely boring. There was no air conditioning in
the studio and it was soo hot and we were wearing those stupid tuxedos. I left
for part of the day because I started to feel like I had some kind of indian
monkeybird virus and I was watching another film shoot at the studio. Two
French guys I was rooming with at the Salvation Army Hostel got some really
good parts dancing like lunatics. Watching these few scenes I recognize about
40 people who I was there with. We spent almost all of the day hanging around
doing nothing so I talked with many of the other extras, so it is interesting
to see them in the movie. There were some Afgan-Russian guys living in India
who worked as extras all the time. The pay was about $10 for the whole
day plus food. For some reason the Indians like to have white people
play the extras in their films. It makes sense some of the scenes where
they are supposed to take place in London for example. When they needed some
especially good-looking white girls they had a list of mostly eastern
european models living in Mumbai that they called, they made more money
than the rest of us of course.
|
|
|
More singing and flying. sweet! Some of those people are really looking stupid
down there in that scene, making fools of themselves, fantastic! I did my best
to make a fool of myself but I was not honored with those moments being
documented. It is only when we pretend not to be fools that we start making
mistakes, eh?
|
|
|
There is a part where the main actress here slithers along the
ground on her back and then 6 guys pick her up in the air and I was
right there helping hold her up but the camera is zoomed in really tight on her
so you can only see the 6 indian professional dancers directly around her.
Those guys were really full of themselves, anyhow they did do a good job. I
also was one the film set of an Indian serial (sitcom) but I really can´t be
bothered to track down that one, although it seemed pretty funny. Now, I
want to make some of my own documentary-interview type films or maybe comedies
too.
|