Navigating the Choppy High Seas of Film Production
I would've written sooner had it been possible for me to find a moment between hyperventilating, hustling, and coughing. So much has happened in the past couple of weeks that I've developed nostalgia for the early days of March 2018 already (I was so young back then, so innocent!). The good news is there is a lot of good news. :)
We have cast a new lead actress. She is someone with a history in the Indian mainstream industry and a desire to do something interesting with her career. She (let's call her SH) also loves our script. I have to be coy about the names for a little bit longer. We might also have cast a wonderful boy to play Bharat, the lead character of the film. Getting to this point has been a manic journey.
First, I learned that my cinematographer of choice was going to get pulled away on a project he was pre-committed to, the dates of which had kept shifting. That was devastating as he was someone I had worked with on my very first India film back in 2008. So for a while we entertained moving the shoot date up to early April so we could shoot with him on board. Of course that meant we had to scramble to cast the many speaking roles in the film and get all our locations and permits in order. A gargantuan task in a short time. The pressure of this date really bore down on me, and every little delay was magnified, my mood darkening. It didn't help that I was driving an hour and a half each way to cover the 8-mile distance between my mother's flat and Andheri, the area where all the film people live and meetings happen. Then when the actress we had previously thought would be the lead pulled out ( a story for another time - for now just chalk it up to the madness of India), we knew an early April start date was no longer realistic. So after 2 weeks of insanity, I allowed myself to relax.
Somehow that is when things started to take shape. Honey, our casting director started introducing me to actors for the supporting roles; Kanchan, the producer got locations and permits in place, and I met and hired my first AD (assistant director) and our production designer, a highly accomplished young woman. But I was without a lead actress and a lead boy. And now we were looking at a May date.
Then two days ago, we got the news that Pankaj, my cinematographer of choice, had had his movie pushed yet again and would now be available to me through mid-May. On the same day we made our decision on the female lead (SH) after she blew everybody away in a wonderful audition. Later that day (or maybe the day before, it's hard to recall), I wandered into the auditions room where the casting team had been looking at a number of boys for the lead role of Bharat - I had been highly unimpressed with the choices up to that point. But on this day, the boy who was performing right when I walked in caught my eye. I kept watching and I realized he was the boy! Not only was he saying the lines with the right emotions, he appeared to be feeling the feelings and not acting. And to top it all, he had the right look.
So now, I am sitting in a Starbuck's coffee right next to the rental apartment I am staying in (to cut the daily commute between my mom's and Andheri) trying to comprehend all that has happened and seriously considering a start date of April 23 for the shoot. Unthinkable just a week ago. I had a peaceful early morning when no one had arrived in the Starbuck's and a young eager barista offered me a demonstration of the "siphon" technique of making coffee. It was amazing to see that here, in this city, amid all the third-world insanity outside, I could be in here, having such a "boojie" moment. I put away my guilt, and leaned in for a lovely lesson in coffee making in the comfortable air-conditioned space, and for a moment, I focused just on tasting the difference between an Americano and a siphon-made cup.
