AMITABH BACHCHAN!!!!!

As the above photo indicates, I MET AMITABH BACHCHAN!!!!! For the Bollywood-unfamiliar, he is the biggest film star in the entire history of Indian cinema. He was a massive stud in the 70s, and now more often than not he just plays a grumpy but sexy old man (he's somewhere in his 60s) but still fills movie theatres because he's the biggest star ever. Seriously, check his IMDB page. So to get anywhere near him is pretty amazing. I have spent the last 3 days working in Bollywood and I have so many stories to tell. I will split this up into 3 parts (Mr. Bachchan is Day 2!)

Day 1 - I ended up filming for a TV show called "Kis Desh Mein Hai Mera Dil". This came about because the scout who claimed I was shooting for a film the night before had no idea what he was talking about, and the bus that picked up myself and a pile of other extras the next morning took us to the TV shoot. There was no film. It was lame. Apparently it's a big TV show because it's produced by a lady named Ekta Kapoor who is like, the big name in TV here, but whatever. We spent the majority of the day laying around in the heat, occasionally pretending to be a cheering crowd at a soccer game. All in all, it wasn't much of an experience. They weren't very nice, the food was minimal and crappy, and the whole thing was beyond boring - it was like a 14 hour day, too! However, I met cool people - a Canadian girl who used to go to Carleton, actually, and a funny Spanish girl. And a handful of other backpackers.

Perhaps the most interesting bit of the day was when myself and 3 of the other girls got selected to play cheerleaders. This involved all of us putting on skimpy cheerleading outfits and supposedly performing some choreographed routine. It didn't quite work out. Myself, the Spanish girl, and an Australian spent all day running around the set in tiny skirts and getting stared at by gross men. This Belgian girl flat-out refused to wear the outfit, so we were down to three cheerleaders. It was all ok though, actually, because it was really hot out and being in a tiny skirt was better than my jeans. Eventually, late in the day, they called us cheerleaders over to do a scene. Unfortunately, by this time (it was around 5pm, we'd been there 10 hours already) the Australian girl had quit and we were down to 2. They managed to find 3 other girls that were willing to put the outfits on, but 2 of them, Russian girls, refused to show their stomachs and wore tank tops underneath. This pissed off the director, who got one of his people to try and talk the girls into it so we could all look the same.

Here's where trouble started... the Russian girls were refusing to do it. The sun was starting to go down and they were losing light on the outdoor set, causing stress. This guy kept arguing with the girls that the rest of us were wearing the outfits and we all had to look the same so they had to take off their tank tops. They still refused. They argued that the Indian cheerleaders had their stomachs covered, so why couldn't they do it? The guy said it was to show the difference between how Indian girls dress vs. western girls. HA HA HA. They think we're all hoochies. We all started laughing because NOBODY would really wear an outfit this hideous ever. (Incidentally, the opposing soccer team was "Canada" which was highly amusing since all the extras had Canada flags painted on their faces, but lame since they thought Canadian girls were hoochie.) At this point, the guy was pissing me off with his attempts to pressure them, and I spoke up and said something along the lines of, "Listen, they aren't comfortable with that. You can't pressure them to do it. So you either have to find someone else who will wear the outfits, or work around it." I don't think they appreciated that.

Not 5 minutes later, a woman (who I think may actually have been Ekta Kapoor, but I would have to see a recent photo of her to confirm that) walks up to me and tells me I can't be a cheerleader anymore, because, and I quote, "we want girls who are thin." Ouuuuuch. How many times since I've been in India have people called me fat now?! I am losing count. It's lame because Indian movie heroines are generally not thin either! You'd think a country that's generally curvy would be a bit nicer about this stuff. But no. Anyway, I didn't take it too personally, since fair enough, I don't look like a stereotypical skinny cheerleader, which is what they want. I wandered off and told the story to the Belgians and the Australians who were nearby - the Australian guy went apeshit, which was hilarious, and said they were all racist with their stereotypes, and he started swearing.

At this point I wandered off to the trailer to change back to my normal clothes. After I change, there is a knock on the door and in comes the guy from the field who was pressuring those girls. He wants to know why I left, and tells me to change back. (He knows I was told to leave and why, he is just playing dumb.) I got a bit snarky.

Guy: Please come back on set, we need you.
Me: Oh, you realized there was nobody thinner to do it?
Guy: That was just a misunderstanding! We need girls like you.
Me: Nope, I'm not wanted.
Guy: I know what we want, and we want you. You have a beautiful face, great expressions. You're very spirited.
Me: (with sarcasm) Oh you're good. Have you been in this business a long time? Because you know exactly what to say!

At which point the dude continues to beg, and I enjoy the fact that I'm being a total diva having a fit in the trailer, until the other girls come back and announce the cheerleader bit has been cancelled for the day since the other ones still wouldn't take their tank tops off. It was all pretty hilarious. I am not going to make it far in the entertainment business though with my attitude though, haha. But seriously, you can't call someone fat and then tell them to put the outfit back on and prance around in front of a camera. Bad call. (I do have photos of the outfit which are pretty funny, but I didn't want to take away from the glory of Mr. Bachchan by including them in this post.)

We didn't get back from the shoot until late, at which point I went for dinner and drinks with the Canadian girl. Originally, I was supposed to do another shoot that night, for a song and dance number, but the stupid TV show ran late and I missed it, which pissed me off tremendously. However, not being on the dance shoot worked in my favor - outside the cafe we went to for dinner, we ran into a scout - the slightly less sketchy one, and right while I was standing there he got a call from someone who needed 2 extras for a film shooting at Film City (big Bollywood studios!!)... A FILM WITH AMITABH BACHCHAN. I was like "I'LL DO IT!!!!!" It was entirely a case of being in the exact right place at the right time.

Day 2 - Early in the morning, I get on the bus again with a new crowd of extras, which takes us to the stupid TV show set again. On a gross side note, the really sketchy scout was there on the bus (the slimy guy from my first day here) and he kept touching my arm alot and trying to get close to me, saying stuff like "Hey... I like you..." I nearly puked. From the TV set though, they sent me to the Amitabh Bachchan shoot. This involved me getting on the back of a motorcycle alone with a strange man. Which, under normal circumstances I would not do, but the magic words "Film City" and "Amitabh Bachchan" caused common sense to fly out the window. As we were flying down the road at ludicrous speeds, me helmetless again and clinging to this random dude for dear life, I kept thinking "Dear god why didn't I buy travel insurance?" But we got there safely.

It was SO cool being at Film City. It's like a bunch of studios inside this massively huge and pretty wilderness area, with trees and almost mountains and stuff. I spent most of the day hanging out inside a sweet air-conditioned trailer getting my hair done and eating good food. No sign of Mr. Bachchan at all. At the very end of the day, me and this one other English guy named Tom got taken on set for our scene. We were bookstore patrons, and we had to walk into this bookstore run by Amitabh Bachchan. I just walk in and browse, and Tom says a line!!! (I was so freaking jealous that he has dialogue with Amitabh Bachchan - he didn't know who he was so couldn't grasp how cool it all was, haha.) Actually we filmed our part after Amitabh was done, so I never filmed with him directly, but it'll be cut together into the same scene. I watched him film his part though and he's amazing. He is such a megastar though that the whole shoot seems like it's controlled by him. He told the crew to hurry up so he could go home, haha... he seemed pretty grumpy. When he was done, he was walking out and walked right past me. I was scared since he was grumpy, but I stopped him and said "Excuse me sir" and then told him I was a fan and asked if I could take a photo with him. He asked where I was from and how I knew him, haha. And then he posed for a photo with me. It was all over in less than 2 minutes, but it was awesome. AWESOME.

The whole experience was SO cool. This was a big budget Bollywood film, way better than that dumb TV show. The only downside to the day was that it was about 40 degrees out but the film took place in the mountains so they made me wear a parka. Which was ok in the AC trailer but a bit toasty outside, haha. On the way out, we passed a set where Abhishek Bachchan (son of Amitabh, star of Dhoom 2, among other things) was filming. Abhishek was in a trailer and I was outside, begging to be able to say hello to him, but they wouldn't let me in. Apparently he was in a meeting with the director and producers. Bah. Then we had to leave Film City and go home. :(

Photos: Set construction for Amitabh Bachchan film, and Abhishek's set (allegedly that's his car!)


Day 3 - It was my intention to not do any Bollywood stuff today, and sightsee instead. I slept in till nearly 11am, then wandered out, not even showered yet, to get breakfast, and got jumped on by yet another scout wanting me to go to a shoot RIGHT then. At first I turned it down but then he begged me, and since the day was half over already and I'd only have to be on set a half-day, I relented. It turned out to be another actual Bollywood film, a comedy with Kunal Khemu (a hot guy who is a fairly big deal here, but not an actor I am familiar with) and Soha Ali Khan! Soha Ali Khan was in Rang De Basanti, one of my favorite Hindi films ever, so I got pretty excited. (Also - JULIA!! Soha Ali Khan is the younger sister of Saif Ali Khan!!!) This was smaller budget than the Film City shoot, not as big a deal, so the set was pretty relaxed... I kind of wandered around somewhat at my leisure taking pictures of stuff on set. (I actually snuck in beside the cameraman at one point and filmed one of the takes on my camera!) In between takes, Soha Ali Khan sat down next to me, and so I got to talk to her! We chatted about Rang De Basanti, and she was pretty interested in the fact that I'd taken a Bollywood film course. Then I got a photo, yay. And later on I was in a scene with her. It's in a restaurant, I'm sitting at a bar in the background while her and Kunal are at a table. It turned out to be a really cool day. I also ended up chatting with the executive producer of the film about random stuff, including Aamir Khan, and he gave me the address of Aamir Khan's office. So I can hunt him down and try to meet him, haha. We'll see how I do with that.

Photos: Me with Soha Ali Khan, and Soha and Kunal filming a scene!


Okay, internet cafe is closing - tomorrow I actually intend to sight-see, but this could change if the offer to meet anymore Bollywood stars comes up... oh, incidentally, the Amitabh Bachchan film was called "Shoebite" and the one today was called "Dhoondte Rahe Jaoge". I hope they release to theatres in Canada, haha.