Monday, May 11, 2009

Jhoom Le!

Jhoom Le... saare gham bhool ke... jhoom le...

She doesnt remember the lyrics clearly, but this is what is lingering in her for the past 48 hours. Any specific reason why? Yes.... these are the lyrics of the first ever ad film she shot! No ordinary story my friends... it's genuinely a dream come true. A lebanese telecom giant, comes to India to shoot a bollywood routine with even bigger giants like Farah Khan in the director's seat, Ravi Chandran who makes it all look so good on screen and Omung Kumar the hand behind the fab set... and one new AD among 2 experienced one's...running around the sets trying to make some sense out of the controlled chaos...that's me!

My first ad shoot with with such big names is something i will remember for the rest of my life. I was handling costumes and Ashima who was the chief AD is the most charming and helping AD you'd find around here. Pierre was a darling, he virtually handheld me through the shoot, sweetly telling me how to give claps, how to deal with people, how to always avoid being around a temperamental director and tips that i will remember for life! I was like a total novice! No clue about anything that was happening. Doing what was asked from me. I was totally lost in the madness on the set enjoying every moment. I ran up and down two floors some 20 times, but every drop of sweat that ran down my cheek felt like it was blocking me so the sun won't stop me.... every time my name was called i felt like i existed... everytime i did my job well i felt i achieved something... everytime my feet twinged i knew i had more distance to cover and i have chosen the right path... everytime the wind blew dirt in my hair it meant i would wash it all off and be readier tomorrow! I may have looked like a total tart on day one but i picked up on day two and day three i was proud of myself to have understood a lot and found my ground finally!

Roll camera... action! All this was music to my ears... those blindling lights... that flurry to give the clap on time... getting yelled at and yet being given responsibility... it all felt so good! When the lights went off after pack up...i din't want to leave the set! This is what i want to do so how can it end so soon! But thankfully... i have another experience lined up soon.

I frankly had no idea this was so easy... had i known this before, i would have come much earlier.... but Jalal saab said once ' Bindu ki maa...jab jab jo jo hona hai tab tab so so hota hai'.... i can't control time and surely not my fate! But i am glad to be one of the few handpicked lucky ones to get to work with such big names always on my firsts! Such is life...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow - good going!
Many years ago I was part of a team that set up the adventure sequence for a shaving cream ad. Honestly, if you ask me, the storyboard was quite silly. There was this shot of a girl rock climbing and takes a fall. The macho guy holding the backup rope stops her fall (with all the possible wrong technique) and then say something stupid like - suraksha hi sab kucch hai. Gaanth bandh lo! It did sound more like a condom ad than a shaving cream one, but then....
To shoot the 15-something seconds ad, it took us the whole day. The girl had the toughest time I think, dangling on the rope halfway up the cliff. I never saw her again in any ad. She clearly had had enough!
Most of all, hope you are enjoying your work. Have fun - cheers!

Pratz said...

u bet... i have not had so much fun breaking my back and being dead by the end of the day ever before. its a different high...

yeah but ur thing sounds like a condom ad LOL... :)