Producing Bollywood: Inside the Contemporary Hindi Film Industry (26 page)

Before Malhotra can continue with his reminiscing, Chadda cuts him off, “Debu-
da
, do you have something to narrate for us?”

Das says, “Of course, I have a subject for a light romantic comedy” and launches into his story: “See, the hero is a total debauched guy—drinking, womanizing—and his girlfriend is this tart. His parents are dead, but he lives with his grandparents—who are millionaires—and they won’t give him any of his inheritance until he marries a respectable girl. So he and his tarty girlfriend find some girl who dances in a bar and hire her to play the part of his wife, but that girl is smart also; she doesn’t just want a lump sum, but a percentage of the inheritance. He and the dancer show up at his grandparents’ place pretending to be married. When he asks for his money, the grandparents say not until the firstborn—now they have to fake a pregnancy also!” At this twist in the story, the room bursts into laughter.

Pleased with the reaction, Das continues, “When the girlfriend is getting worried about the hero getting too involved with the dancer girl, he reassures her that he’ll get the money and just dump her. Now the dancer overhears this and decides to teach him a lesson. She takes grandpa to a restaurant to show how the hero is hanging out with the tart girlfriend rather than being at home with her. So the grandparents kick the hero out and transfer the property to the dancer and fictitious child. That is the basic story.”

Everyone starts laughing and praising Das. Khan exclaims, “Mindblowing Debu-
da
! It’s been so long since such a light, fun film has been made, right Rikki?”

Chadda reflects, “Yes, for a film like this casting is really important because there has to be really good chemistry between the hero and the heroine. . .”

Malhotra interjects, “
Debu-da you’ve done it again! What a great story!
Music should be by Amar-Prem and lyrics by Saahil-saab. You know who’ll be
perfect for the part of the boy? My nephew
[sister’s son]
Rajiv
—
he’s ready,
and we were just waiting for the right
subject
for his debut. Can you
narrate
to him tomorrow
?”

Das replies, “
Of course; I have time tomorrow
.”

Malhotra turns to his younger son, “
Lucky, dial Micky’s number, let’s see
if he’s free. He should be
—
he’s done with
college
, so nowadays he only goes to
the
gym
all the time
.”

Lucky dials the number and speaks to his cousin first, “Hello, Micky-bhaiyya? It’s Lucky. Yah, I’m at Filmistan with Papa and he wants to talk to you.”

Malhotra takes the phone and says, “
Hello, Micky-beta
[son],
how are
you?. . . I’m here with Debojit Das. . . Yes, the writer. He just narrated to us
a brilliant
subject
and you’re perfect for it. Do you have time for a
narration
tomorrow?. . . Perfect! Come over at eleven o’clock. . . Yes, at home. Accha,
beta. Give my regards to your parents. . . Bye
.”

Hanging up the phone, Malhotra turns to Das and says, “
Excellent,
Debu-da. We’ll meet tomorrow at home
.”

A beaming Das stands up and says, “
Okay, Malhotra-saab, we’ll meet
tomorrow. Bye Rikki, say hello to your mother. Bye-bye everybody
.” Everyone in the room responds, “Bye Debu-
da
!”

While Malhotra, Chadda, and others are finishing their lunch, Khanna arrives—followed by his man Friday, Raju, who is carrying his clothes— and without a word goes directly toward his makeup room, where a journalist from the new film magazine
Filmi Duniya
had been waiting outside since ten o’clock to conduct an interview.

The journalist stands up and tries to approach Khanna, “Vijay-
ji
, I’m from
Filmi
. . .” but Raju stops her.

“
Sir is busy, he has to get ready for the shoot
.” After a few minutes, Khanna’s personal makeup man enters the room, followed by Raju.

As soon as the break is over at one o’clock, Khanna emerges from the makeup room, dressed in a cream-colored silk brocade kurta, and goes to the set. He is followed by the makeup man, Raju, and the journalist. There, Khan begins to demonstrate the choreography for the song. She first shows Khanna his part without music, counting out the steps, “Okay, Vijay—see here, you come forward—one, two, three, four—and then sideways—five, six, seven, eight—got it? Let’s try with the music.” Khan picks up a microphone to communicate with the sound recordist, who is out of view behind a screen on the opposite end of the set, “Bharat-ji, start the music—
pehle antarey se
[from the first stanza]—give me a few beats lead.” When the music begins, she performs the steps alongside Khanna. They go through this routine a few more times, and then Khan looks around, “Where’s Sulekha? She’s not ready yet?” Khan sends one of the ads to inquire about how much longer Sulekha will take to get ready. She tells Khanna, “Vijay, let’s run through this a couple of times. I’ll do Sulekha’s steps now and you practice yours.” After a few more rehearsals, Khan tells Khanna, “
Theek hai
[That’s fine]; take a break. We need Sulekha to continue.”

Khanna sits down and motions to Raju, who has been standing in the background watching his boss the entire time. “
Raju, give me the phone
and matches
.” Raju immediately hands over Khanna’s cell phone and holds out a pack of Marlboro Lights with one cigarette pulled out slightly for his boss to remove. Khanna takes the cigarette and holds it out in his left hand for Raju to light, meanwhile he sends a text message on his phone with his right.

Raju clears his throat and says, “
Sir, that woman from the magazine is
still here
.”

Khanna looks up from his phone, “
Kahaan
[where]?” He then notices the journalist standing to the left of him in one of the arches framing the courtyard. He tells Raju, “
Oh, I forgot! Bring her here
.”

Raju walks over to the journalist and says, “
Sir is calling you
.”

When she reaches Khanna at his spot near the center of the set, he apologizes, “I am so sorry to keep you waiting. Please sit. It is always so busy on the first day of a schedule! What’s your name?”

“Malini.”

Before she can say anything further, Khanna flashes his famous smile and says, “Ah, lovely name! Tell me Malini will you have some tea or a Pepsi? It’s quite hot, cold is better, no?” Turning to Raju who was waiting attentively nearby, he orders, “
Bring a Pepsi for the lady
.” Turning back to Malini, he asks, “Now tell me, which magazine are you from?”

With this barrage of attention from one of India’s top film stars, Malini’s frustration at waiting for five hours in the heat dissipates rapidly, “
Filmi
Duniya
[Film World]—it’s a new magazine started by Sunita Tandon, who used to be the editor of
Starz
. We would like to feature you on our inaugural cover. I think Sunita-
ji
had called and spoken to you about it?”

“Of course, of course, Sunita is a dear friend. Anything for her,” responds Khanna.

Malini continues, “I’d like to take your interview for the cover story. . .” Khanna cuts her off.

“Of course, of course, definitely. We can do it right now. Go ahead, ask me.”

As Malini takes her notebook out and starts fishing for a pen in her bag, Khanna exclaims, “
It’s about time!

Malini looks up. “Sorry?”

Khanna gestures toward the entrance of the set. Sulekha has just walked into the set with her mother, sister, and dress designer, Rita Chandra, in tow. They walk directly to where Chadda, Khan, and Menon are seated, in front of a video monitor near the camera. Chandra starts
apologizing profusely, “So, so sorry to keep you all waiting Rakesh-
ji
, my tailor master fell ill and then I had to special order the silk for the
ghagra
[long full skirt] from Italy, you know, because you cannot find this shade of blue in India, so everything took much longer than planned!”

Chadda shrugs her off and tells Sulekha, “We’re shooting the
pehla antara
[first verse] first, okay?” He calls out to Vijay who is seated farther away, “
Accha
[okay], Vijay, ready?”

Khanna who was speaking to the journalist, stands up and says, “We’ll continue after I give this shot, okay?” and walks toward the group. Khan takes them both to a less crowded area of the set so that she can supervise their rehearsal. Khanna and Sulekha rehearse their dance steps together a few times. As a trained
Bharatanatyam
dancer, Sulekha picks up the routine quickly.

Chadda asks Khan, “
Okay, shall we do a
take?”

Khan nods her approval, “
Haan
[yes], let’s do it.” She calls out to her assistants who are standing right behind her, “Kabir, Sania, get the dancers in position.”

Chadda tells his assistants to inform Menon that they are ready. Arif rushes to Menon, while Sanjeev starts announcing loudly, “Quiet! Quiet, please!”

The actors and dancers get into position; the lights are switched on; Chadda and Khan take their seats in front of the video monitor; and Menon sits behind the camera, which is placed on a trolley. Sanjeev roars once more, “QUIET! TAKING!”

Khan speaks into the microphone, “Start sound! Roll camera!”

Keshav holds up the clapboard in front of the camera, quickly says, “
Mera Dil Aapke Kadmon Mein Hai
song three, shot one, take one,” and then sounds the clap.

When Khan says, “Action!” Menon’s assistants on either side of him slowly push the camera on a track toward the background dancers arrayed in the center of the courtyard. As the music swells, the group parts in the middle, revealing Khanna and Sulekha dancing side by side.

After two measures of music, Khan, with her eye on the monitor shouts, “Cut it! Good job!” She turns to Chadda, who had been watching the whole sequence along with her on the monitor, “Rikki, what do you think, good, no?”

Chadda answers, “Mind-blowing! Print this one.” Behind one of the arches, a spot boy breaks a coconut to celebrate the first shot of the day and pieces are distributed to everyone on the set.

Malhotra, who watched the shot seated under an archway to the right of the camera, takes a piece of coconut, looks at his watch, and mutters to Iqbal, “
Wow, they took the first
shot
so quickly? It’s only about to be three
o’clock. If they keep going at this rate, my grandchildren will be able to come to
the
premiere
!
”

Munching on the coconut, Khan tells Chadda, “
Let’s take one more as a
safety.”

Chadda responds, “Okay, but not too many extra takes, you know how Malhotra is
kanjoos
[miserly] about spending money on [raw] stock. Who would think on such a big film that we have to measure our stock?”

After one more take of the same sequence, the camera and lights have to be positioned differently for the next shot, and it is time to give the workers their tea break, so Khanna and Sulekha decide to retreat to their respective makeup rooms, which are air-conditioned, unlike the set. The dancers, who don’t have makeup rooms, step outside the set for their break, as it is close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit inside when the lights are on. Khanna asks Malini, the journalist, to accompany him to his makeup room so that they can finish the interview. As he is exiting the set, he encounters Malhotra who is on his way out as well.

“
Hello Malhotra-saab, did you see the
shot?”

Malhotra replies, “
It was absolutely great! The two of you will be an amazing
pair onscreen! Okay, Vijay, I’m off, come home sometime, Mrs. Malhotra
keeps asking about you
.”

During the tea break, another producer, Vinod Lakhani, arrives at the set with his assistant in order to speak to Khanna about acting in a film that he is producing. Discovering that Khanna is in his makeup room, Lakhani decides to wait for him. He tells a spot boy to bring a couple of chairs outside the set and waits there for Khanna. After the tea break, Arif is dispatched to the makeup rooms to inform the actors that they are needed on set. He knocks on Sulekha’s door first, “Ma’am, shot is ready,” and then on Khanna’s door, “Sir, shot is ready.” Sulekha walks out of her room first with her mother and sister. Khanna leaves his room a little later, along with a couple of his friends who dropped by to visit with him. As Khanna walks toward the entrance of the set, Lakhani approaches and greets him, “
Namaste
Vijay-
ji
.”

Khanna replies, “
Lakhani-saab, how are you? I have to give this
shot
; I’ll
be just a minute. Are you fine here or you can also sit inside. Will you have tea
or a soft drink?

Lakhani answers, “
I’m fine right here. I don’t want anything. Thank you
.”

Despite his answer, once inside, Khanna still dispatches a spot boy to serve tea to Lakhani and his assistant, who drink it readily. He also makes a spot boy bring chairs and tea for his friends.

Keshav asks Arif, “
Who is that with Vijay-ji? Someone important?

”

Arif replies, “
No man, they’re his hangers-on/sidekicks, but even a
star
’s
hangers-on start taking on the airs of a
star.”

The second shot is of a close-up of Khanna singing the first line of the
antara
. After a couple of rehearsals, they decide to shoot. The music begins, and the camera with a zoom lens slowly tracks toward Khanna, who lip-synchs, “
Amavas mein chaand nikla mere dil mein jalaya diya
[The moon (a reference to his love) has appeared on this dark night, lighting the lamp in my heart].”

“Cut!” shouts Khan. Turning to Chadda, she says, “What do you think?”

He nods and says, “
Accha hai
. [It’s good.] Let’s print it.”

The third shot is an extreme close-up reaction shot of Sulekha responding to Khanna’s declaration. Her line, “
Meri rooh ki gheraiyon mein
teri awaaz goonjey
[Your voice echoes in the depths of my soul],” proves difficult for her to lip-synch, as she barely speaks Hindi. After several rehearsals, Khan and Chadda decide to film. During the filming, Sulekha stumbles over the word
gheraiyon
(depths). They try again and then she fumbles over the word
goonjey
(echoes).