Off to Film City for 2 seconds of fame 
By IndiaFM News Bureau, December 8, 2006 - 06:31 IST
So, it only took about ten minutes walking down the main gringo strip in Bombay, Colaba Causeway, for someone to ask Leigh "Hello friend, would you like to be an extra in a Bollywood movie?" Of course, one of our main desires when entering one of India's (and the world's) wierdest cities, was to get scouted to be anonymous background actors in a Bollywood extravaganza. We were going to be payed 500 upees (about 20 bucks), so obviously we weren't going to do it for the money. Any other details were from the beginning quite sketchy - all we new is that we were going to be in a "music scene". We met the guy outside the Causeway Macca's where a group of about 20 other whitie males (girls and Indian lookalikes were not required) were waiting to be taken to Film City for their 2 seconds of fame.
When we get to the set Leigh is issued with a bad-arse leather jacket, another two guys get waiter outfits, others get other random jackets. It's about 30 degrees outside, so getting in the air-conditioned warehouse set was relief. This is when we start to discover the rest of the details: the shoot was for an upcoming movie called something like "Cafila", which will basically be about a group of Indian immigrants that get conned by a dude who promises them legal entry into the UK, but abandons them somewhere in Bulgaria. So they're stranded in a non-descript "Russian Bar" and decide to break into a song and dance number. All the whities raise their glasses with the Indians and, out of nowhere, a group of five Russian hotties (pro dancers, just about the only authentic thing on set) dressed in shimmering bellydancer outfits come out to join in the fun. Why not? Leigh was at the center of the action, leaning by the bar next to one of the main actors who encourages him to raise his glass. At one stage they realised they didn't have enough random white guys so they started getting people "from all over the world" to be part of this Russian Bar scene. That's when they pulled me onto the set. Their instructions were "you're just standing here, walking to over there, I don't know, probably to the stairs. All of a sudden you see the dancing and think 'what this is' and you start enjoying, Ok? Remember, enjoying, enjoying!"
Leigh and all the other guys were enjoying as per instructed early in the morning, until they found out the shoot would go until about 9 pm. After the free veg thali at lunchtime, we decided to dump the bad-arse leather jacket and resume our enjoying Bombay elsewhere, forfeiting our 500 Rs payment. Our absence, according to other extras we bumped into later that day, was barely noticed...
Luis Leigh Annamoi’s blog can be accessed at http://luisleighannamoi.blogspot.com/
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