Anurag Kashyap’s diary on No Smoking
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Read More">Ayesha Takia or Priyanka Chopra? Hope Rajkumar Santoshi doesn’t ditch us I am so scared… three days to go and we don’t have an actress… Ayesha Takia or Priyanka Chopra… Paresh Rawal or Irrfan Khan… God knows… Irrfan is not available before he is done with a Mighty Heart…I hope Rajkumar Santoshi doesn’t ditch us…Read MoreAyesha Takia or Priyanka Chopra? Hope Rajkumar Santoshi doesn’t ditch us
I am so scared… three days to go and we don’t have an actress… Ayesha Takia or Priyanka Chopra… Paresh Rawal or Irrfan Khan… God knows… Irrfan is not available before he is done with a Mighty Heart…I hope Rajkumar Santoshi doesn’t ditch us… will be great to have him act in the film… We have locked John Abraham, Ranvir Shorey, Aditya Basu Bhattacharya, and Joy Fernandez… I hope I survive the mainstream… how much I want to go back to making completely independent films… I don’t know whether we will be able to pull of the special effects… Gulzar sahib has written two cigarette songs, four more to go… have to get the rights to old songs… wish Black Friday releases soon… I have to go and meet John…have to show him all the cone brother’s films… especially Big Lebowski, Barton Fink and Raising Arizana… Matthew Robbins (Sugar land Express) says John has to be willing to play the fool…, “you need a Jim Carrey, Anurag, to pull this off†…John is willing to go the whole hog… he is ready to be broken down… Iet’s see… have to meet the grip guy… have to get him to cut down on his price… or I will have to make do with what I have and innovate… how will I do it?… why can’t we have other people to do the dirty job… why I wrote this film… Oh Scorsese… give me strength…
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No Smoking is finally 120:19 minutes… What a process it has been… With so many people chipping in with their suggestions… From Devashish Makhija, Read More">to Vikrmaditya to Nikhil Advani to Gulzar saab to Gautam… finally came to many new discoveries… two people whose opinion you should trust the most when editing… Your editor… it’s soRead MoreNo Smoking is finally 120:19 minutes…
What a process it has been… With so many people chipping in with their suggestions… From Devashish Makhija, to Vikrmaditya to Nikhil Advani to Gulzar saab to Gautam… finally came to many new discoveries… two people whose opinion you should trust the most when editing… Your editor… it’s so obvious that we don’t see it… Every time after the entire process I have always come to and done what Aarti (editor) says right in the beginning… but my first reaction is “Oh she doesn’t understand what I mean†to “Why doesn’t she understand it?†to “Ok lets try it†to “Oh that works†to “Oh that works but let me think†to “Aarti you are a geniusâ€â€¦ I don’t know why I always look at the very people who help me realise my dream as enemies to my creativity…
Second your producers… who I always look upon as my biggest enemy… The most incredible cut… most incredible because it was drastic, it was ruthless to the point of self annihilation… it was so unexpected, so unreasonable (when suggested) that it shocked both me and Vishal Bharadwaj… and then we both looked at each other and said almost in unison, “It could work’… then spoke to Aarti then had to get Rinkoo her assistant… just to try it… and it rocked… It came from Kumar Mangat… I always thought he was so good at handling people and other things… I also would blame him sometimes for other things… but I never gave him credit for creativity… I forgot he was the first positive response to No Smoking… I forgot he actually produced Omkara… well he nailed it… And Vishal Bharadwaj, I was so insecure with letting him take a go at my film, and I also needed it and there was no one else I respected and trusted to have a go… Gulzar saab said, “I did it to him in Omkara, I took out everything and he came back and put it all right back, but it helps finding objectivityâ€
No Smoking is finally 120:19 minutes…
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When John Abraham was hurt I heard John saying, “In this film 90 per cent of the times, I am wearing suits or I have bare body shots with nothing in–betweenâ€. There was a scene, Read More">where John had to break a glass door. He had to physically sabotage the door. In the process he hadRead MoreWhen John Abraham was hurt
I heard John saying, “In this film 90 per cent of the times, I am wearing suits or I have bare body shots with nothing in–betweenâ€. There was a scene, where John had to break a glass door. He had to physically sabotage the door. In the process he had a slight cut.
Nightmare of a process is over… after three months in the editing room, we have it locked… we missed the Cannes deadline… So much for telling everyone that it will be a hundred minute film… I ended making a 160 minute film… it’s so painful to cut out your favourite shots… It’s so difficult to find objectivity… I had to frequently get away from the film to find it… had to take week long, sometimes a fortnight sabbatical from it to fall out of love with my shots… Finally had to ask Vishal to come in and be ruthless with my film… Who do I have to thank for it… Mira Nair… still remember what she said to me when I complemented her on her economy of shots, she said, “Oh we spent a lot of time on editing… I don’t know why people here don’t spend time on itâ€â€¦ Well four months later we have a rocking rollercoaster…
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Has any spot boy risen up the ranks in Bollywood? Sometimes I cast people working on the sets. This time it was the turn of the location manager Sanjay Oberoi. Now Sanjay dresses up in Paresh Rawal’s henchman clothes, away from his production buddies. Paresh Rawal’s henchmen come in all shapes and sizes from tall, Read More">Read MoreHas any spot boy risen up the ranks in Bollywood?
Sometimes I cast people working on the sets. This time it was the turn of the location manager Sanjay Oberoi. Now Sanjay dresses up in Paresh Rawal’s henchman clothes, away from his production buddies. Paresh Rawal’s henchmen come in all shapes and sizes from tall, heavy to tiny and average. Even the spot boys are stars on the sets. Their character is unique in its own way. Two of the most popular spot boys are Bhaktawar and Jalwa. Bhaktawar has so many visas on his passport that the Assistant Directors are envious of him. All the Assistant Directors won’t be going to Siberia for the outdoor schedule, but Bhaktawar would be a necessity? Jalwa has a script, which he wants to make into a feature someday. That made me wonders if any spot-boy has risen up the ranks in Bollywood. Lawrence D’Souza, was the answer provided. He started at the lowest rank, became assistant cameraman, cinematographer and ultimately a director.
Saajan is a super hit to his credit. I remember seeing an advertisement of a Bhojpuri film directed by Lawrence recently in a Hindi newspaper. The other person would be Ashok Mehta, arguably the numero-uno cinematographer in Mumbai.
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Read More">Why Colaba is a favorite spot for Bollywood An old deserted mill touching the east sea coast in Colaba is the stage for Prayogshala. Its became a favourite spot for Bollywood after the dock scenes of ‘Hum’ and ‘Agneepath’ were shot. For films shot in Bombay vast silent space with high roof n walls withinRead MoreWhy Colaba is a favorite spot for Bollywood
An old deserted mill touching the east sea coast in Colaba is the stage for Prayogshala. Its became a favourite spot for Bollywood after the dock scenes of ‘Hum’ and ‘Agneepath’ were shot. For films shot in Bombay vast silent space with high roof n walls within the city limits is ideal for shooting. The studios appear like a warehouse, even warehouses are used as studios? A film maker inclined towards horror genre would be excited to have the ’ khundars’ here. But, the sets of No Smoking are very different and interesting, and can only be seen in the film. Just to give an example, there is a kind of magic box, where a person disappears when kept in it. Wasiq Kahn’s team came up with a neat set up to pull it off. The get up of Paresh Rawal also can not be shared.
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