Please-Horn-Ok

Sunday. 23, April. Delhi.

Hi out there. I know- It has been a while since the last posting. I am fine, don´t worry. In fact i had so many experiences that i just didnt had the time to write something here. Right now i am in Delhi and have some time left before i will catch a bus to northern India tomorrow.

First of all i forgot to give you my next "best picture of the week", which i took right before i went to Panjim. Please meet Javer, who is a kaschmiri trailor settled in Calangute (North Goa): He is not just very good in his profession but also an adorable Abhishek Bachchan lookalike.



By the way- the last weeks it happened rather oftenly to me that indian fellows told me that i look like Bollywood-actress Katrina Kaif. Well, i dont really kow what they mean, but it is sort of an extra-bonus to be seen like this. And once Katrina Kaif is not one of the worst choices and seems to be of growing popularity i can live with that. But people who know me, may laugh now. But, dear friends- you know what? I consider a original Krrish-Mask my own- and you don´t! So who is laughing now? Ätsch.

But there is something that i would like to share with you: I participated at Bollywood-Movie Shootings in Goa! The Movies title is "Shaadi Ke After Effects", starring Arbaaz Khan and Malaika Arora Khan, directed by Mr. Indrajit Lankesh.



If you want to know how this could happen to me read the following:
It started with my plan to move from Palolem to Patnem. Palolem is actually nice, but still to loud and to busy. And overfilled with crazy dogs and a recordnumber of cows. And sadly we had two drowned honeymoon-indians on one day, cause of the very dangerous waves. So i took my guitar and searched for a silent place.
When i arrived in Patnem i checked some beach-shacks and spoke to a bargainer-guy who forced me into some smalltalk-chai-shadow-sitting-thingi. Well- it took only 2 minutes when he realized with a glance in his eyes that i am somehow interested in indian Cinema. He immediatley sent me to discover the next beach. So i climbed the rocks there and run directly into a nearby song&dance set. One or two moments were passing by while i was deciding to whom to talk first. Then decided for the guy with the cap. Lucky strike. It was the director. After a ten minutes of this spontaneus interview i was allowed to stay with the crew, taking pictures and speaking with everybody.



I spent the next three days with them and spoke to the Producer, the Stars, the choreographers, the dancers, the Set designer, and many of the crewmembers like decoration department or the technicians and the equipment-carriers- but the lower the hirachy goes, the more difficult it gets, cause many of them came from Bangalore and weren`t able to speak english.



The shootings were quite stressing but seemed very concentrated to me. There was no script on the set cause it was just song and dance, but usually they worked with one for this movie. It was the last scene for the film, which will be released in August. I was surprised to learn that all of the dancesteps are learned by the actors and backgrounddancers right on the set. Arbaaz Khan (brother of Salman Khan and husband of Malaika Arora) did very good with that, despite he was not really dancing in his earlier career. It took 2 to approximatley 6 rehearsels befor the real take. The backgrounddancers themselves wouldnt need any rehearsels at all, cause they are understanding really fast what to do. And even if the stressed-out assistant Director says something like "Girls! Do something! Just something", they stay professional and it will look good.



To sum it up i would say, that everybody who worked on this film enjoyed it. Some guys, like f.e. Somu, who is doing makeup nowadays, have done other jobs in the past, but so much enjoy to work within filmmaking (Somu f.e. has been a former IT-Student ). The guy who is transporting the cameracran maybe 20 times a day earns arround 600-800 Rupies, which seems to be quite much. I havent had the impression, that a single person here gets exploited.
Another perception one could have made, is that there were no women on the set, besides the Production Designer, the actress Malaika and sometimes her mother- and the background dancers. (Plus: there was one hair-dresser-transvestite who seemed to be as well a close friend and assistance of the Khan- family and seemed to float most of the time good energy to the whole set.)

Do i really have to tell you more? It was amazing. And it gave me much more to write and think about. On the other hand it was just three coincidence days of song and dance. If you want to know more you may post it to the comments.

PS: Good news for the beloved Bollywood-Bloggers! I got the Hardnewsmagazine! Have 5 of them and will sent it to Babasko when i am back from my Himachal-Trip. If you force her nicely she may forward it to you. If you want me to buy more pieces please tell soon.