A Passage From India

Last days on the set in Mumbai - Photo by Arpit Shukla

Well, where to start? The adventure in India is over. Long over actually, but frankly it hasn't been easy to relate the story and of course, wrapping it up and getting into something new has been consuming.

I left India in April, about two weeks after the last posting. It was at that time that the true nature of my deal with Indian VFX company and the true nature of the deal between that company and the Production Company making the movie was revealed. In short, the VFX Company had promised a lot of things to both myself and the Production Company and due to either losses in other facets of their business or because it was beyond their reach in the first place, they simply quit paying me. I resigned when the situation became untenable back home with no money coming in and then when there was no response at all to that declared them in breach of contract and when there was no response to that, I came home. I believe the VFX Company figured that the Production Company would pay me in order to keep me on the show. Although that was possible up to a point, it was very difficult to for me or my family to see how it was going to all work out, so I cut my losses and got on a plane while I still had a valid ticket in my hand.

So John is no longer in India. It was a unique experience and of course not exactly what I expected, though truthfully I had few enough expectations coming in. I knew it would be something beyond my previous experience. That's all to the good. My impressions of India are of a country and culture with a rich history, but one which is ultimately very insular and homogeneous. It is a world unto itself, overpopulated to the point of paralysis and largely unaware of the world beyond its borders. There is a culture within that is accepted even though few are content about it. As through much if not all of India's history, the wealthy have their way and the poor accept their lot. A democratic government has replaced the rule of monarchs with a rule of disassociated oligarchs who have managed to characterize the government as bungling and corrupt and incapable of running things. In fact, this does appear to be the truth. So those with money do what they want: cheat the system, pay few taxes and exploit everyone that it is possible to exploit. I was told that that is "how it works" in India. I will argue that it actually doesn't work at all for most Indians but it does seem to be working for the people who told me that. They probably think that that's how it works everywhere and while that's true to some extent there are balances in power in the West that are not evident at all in India. I have never believed in trickle-down anyway but India has shown me what it would be like if we really did let the richest Americans have things exclusively their own way with no interference from the government. I didn't like it.

I am truly sorry that I was unable to stay and finish the film. I was told by some that if I really felt that way then I would have stayed, so maybe I am overstating it, at least in Indian terms. I respect and admire the filmmakers, the performers and the artists who cared enough to really work to make the film something notable. I do wish them well and have every confidence that they will make a great movie that will be the big hit that it deserves to be. 

Like most good yarns, this story does have a sequel. That saga will be continued elsewhere on The Delusion Dog Blog.

Thanks for reading.

Acting the Tourist

The Gate of India

We had a day off so we made a trip to South Mumbai (Old Bombay) with no agenda except a little touring and hoping to hook up with my college roomie who is India mentoring screenwriters as a part of program sponsored by Sundance.

Bandra/Worli Sealink

We took our car down across the Bandra/Worli Sealink, which sounds like a ferry but is actually a bridge. It's been open for a while now but like a lot of other things, still under construction. It was a very nice day, a little hot but after Hyderabad it didn't seem so bad. It takes a little while to get across town to Colaba which is the tourist center. We went straight to The Gate of India, which was built to commemorate the visit of King George V to India in 1911, the first such visit by the Emperor of India. The Gate was finished in 1924 and is most famous as the place where the last British soldiers left India in 1948. The plaza around the Gate is now barricaded which hurts the feel of the place quite a lot. Another one of those things that makes you go hmmm vis-a-vis anti-terrorism. When every landmark looks like a prison yard, who is the victor, the society or the terrorists? The famous Taj Mahal Palace Hotel is also next to the Gate of India. We didn't go in there but instead walked up to the University of Bombay which took us by most of the museums in the area. We didn't know where to start there so that will also be something for another day. 

Taj Mahal Palace Hotel

The Bombay Art Museum

Colaba

Rajabai Tower

Our destination was the Rajabai Tower which is the clock tower of the university and a potential location for a key moment in the film. Across from that is The Oval, a large park or Maiden which is primarily used for cricket. We watched a little of the action there before heading back to Colaba.

The Oval

The Leopold Cafe

We met up with José, my ex-roomate at the Leopold Cafe, which has been at least a tourist destination since the late 1800s. It was shot up by the terrorists who bombed the Taj Mahal Hotel and famously still has some bullet holes in the wall. Yikes. 

That dot above The Gateway is a souvenir of 26/11

Lunch was good and we all got to meet the Sundance group traveling with José. It's pretty weird to be so far from home and run into people you know, but I think it was weirder for José who was just here In A Distant Land for a few days. I think I've become a little used to the swirling culture of India where you never know what's going to happen next. José asked me, "What are the chances? (that we would meet in Bombay)" and my response was "What are the chances anyway?" Anyway you look at it's always great to see friends in far-away places. 

Last Days in Hyderabad

Sunrise from the front gate of the Sitara

It was hot right to the end. Never a cloud (or hardly) for the whole 47 days of the shoot. It made for a lot of nice sunrises and sunsets. We had at least one nice serenade in addition to all the rocking weddings complete with drummers, horses, fireworks and screaming Emcees. The biryanis were always good and it was nice to be in a place that was kept clean even if it was a somewhat artificial.


Here's a little video of a wedding in the front gate of the Sitara. Bang those drums LOUDLY!

A visitor at the set. He's about 14 inches long!

Leave your shoes and your scooter at the door please

One of the nicer musical moments at the Sitara was the youth orchestra concert. I think I mentioned it in an earlier post but here's a few moments to enjoy.

We flew back to Mumbai on SpiceJet which were nice planes with somewhat sub-standard pilots, in my opinion. Maybe it was just a hard day to fly. We might have flown Kingfisher but they are going under, or Air India, but they were full covering for Kingfisher and JetAir both of which are canceling flights faster than the news can keep up. Lots of financial turmoil in India right now. Anyway the Hyderabad airport is the equal of anything I've seen anywhere. Very nice and very new, lots of food and such inside security which never used to be the case. Most importantly everything, including my Strat all made it through the baggage gauntlet. I'm now back at the Novotel in Juhu. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised but as the far as the staff is concerned, it's like I never left. "Mister John" is back in town, cappuccino and eggs over easy coming right up! That's kind of nice.

Transcendence on the set

Here's one from the set that was quite interesting. I don't have much commentary on this, but somehow it seems indicative of some interesting and maybe key differences in the cultures of America and India.

I was sitting in the video tent when from behind the fabric wall I heard a yelp. I thought someone had kicked the slum dog that was hanging around the set. This happens all the time :-( but I wanted to see what the matter was so I got up to see. Where the yelp came from was a small circle of people surrounding a man on the ground who was writhing and occasionally shouting or muttering, which then turned into clear words in either Hindi, or more likely Telugu. He then stood up and began turning around pointing at the sky and kneeling and touching the ground and then the sky, the ground etc. while praying continuously. He then fell on the ground and began prostrating himself with his hands held together in prayer. People were talking to him but he was consumed with his ritual. When he finished he walked away from the set and sat apart from the group.

I did not know this man, but I believe he was one of the day workers. I wouldn't have known him even if he was on the crew. So I went to my co-workers and asked, "OK, what was that about?" and they answered "Possession!" Even though it may seem a little presumptive to say this, I have to add that the people answering this question are guys from the VFX company who are living an urban lifestyle in Mumbai, so the quick and frank answer surprised me. I said, "Oh. So what kind of possession and by who?" They answered that they didn't know, but one of the gods. They added that the people gathered had asked him who was possessing him but got no clear answer. They also asked him to answer questions about their future and fate as is often done in these cases and often answered, but he refused to answer these questions and said that he would only pray and then leave, which he did. The artist I was speaking to also added that he had later seen the same man having a similar experience a little later, off by himself. 

Everyone treated the episode with the utmost respect and seriousness. No-one doubted the authenticity of the event and I was told that it is not uncommon. I was then asked, "Doesn't this ever happen in the US?" At first I was quick to say "No. This never happens." thinking that I can't very well say, "Yes, but we think the people are mentally ill or epileptic or looking for attention," and already trying to sort out how we and they look at this type of thing so differently, but then I realized that this does happen in the US. I stopped and said, "Wait! Yes. It does happen. We call it 'speaking in tongues' and it happens a lot, often in churches dedicated to the practice." I told them of my experiences as a radio announcer when on Sunday mornings we had to broadcast services live from various churches. In Newark, Ohio we rotated all the faiths and sooner or later we ended up at one of these churches where I did witness very similar behavior appreciated with the same seriousness and faith as the Indians were expressing towards this man on the set.

Maybe the most simple explanation of this is that in the west we associate places of worship to our religion whereas in India it's more a part of the environment. I mentioned this idea earlier when observing crew members, even the director, honoring the prop statue of Shiva near our set at Film City. People here don't need priests and churches to pray. You might see advantages to either way of worship depending on your view of religion in general and organized religion in particular. My most vivid impression was that these acts of divine channeling are obviously trans-cultural and the interesting bit is how seriously they are taken in general. Here in India it's immediately accepted by everyone, whereas in the US, even the Holy Rollers are looked at with doubt and uncertainty, never mind people who prophesy out in the streets.

Anyway it was the most illuminating experience of the day for everyone involved.

Night Run to Hyderabad City

We finally made a run to Hyderabad on a Friday night. We didn't get to see much as we came at night and couldn't stay long but at least we got a taste of Hyderabad, literally. As I said earlier, here it's all about the Biryani. Our target was the Paradise Restaurant, which has been famous for the best biryani in Hyderabad for almost 60 years I guess. It's a massive three or four story restaurant festooned by neon. 

The Paradise in Secundabad

To get to Paradise we drove for 90 minutes from Ramoji Film City, and that's at night with comparatively little traffic. That took us through the outskirts of Hyderabad and then through some of the shopping districts where while I was seeing stores that looked a bit more like what I think stores are supposed to look like, but the rest of the car, mostly Mumbaikers were marveling at the sheer scale of the showroom floors. "All that just saris! That's too big!" was a typical comment. 

Hyderabad streets are much much better than Mumbai. They felt totally smooth. Mumbai is constant potholes, broken roads and cobbles, Even the best parts of town have bumps. Hyderabad seemed much more open in comparison, which resulted in easily 60% of people staying in their lanes, as compared to 0% in Mumbai, and less weaving and honking. OK, we still had people crossing the median in front of us on foot on cycles and yes even in speeding cars coming at us on the wrong side of the road, but it still seemed like there was some order. We even saw people stop at traffic signals though our driver did not!

We drove through the center of the city where some of the old British forts remain and saw the lake with fountains and statues out in the water. We ended up across the lake in the part of town that is technically Secundabad where the restaurant is. We had Chicken and Veg Biryani and some chicken kebabs and a chicken sausage of some kind that had really spicy peppers in it. There was mint chutney, curd for the veg biryani and a spicy chicken gravy for the chicken biryani. All very delicious. The most special part of the biryanis here is the sophistication of the seasoning. Lots of different spices are mixed to create just the right balance of heat and flavor. The biryani we had was seasoned with cinnamon and cardamon as well as pepper, masala and curry powders. Really really good.

Biryani!

Yow.

We topped off the evening at Famous Ice Cream where we had desserts which I was told are unique to Hyderabad: a mish-mash of all kinds of ice-cream of different colors and flavors all crammed together in a dish called a "Special" packed with nuts and little gelatin sweeties and such.

That was pretty good, too.

So we finally got out of Film City at least for a few hours. We didn't do any shopping but that's life on the set when you are pressed for time. 

Happy Holi!

Maybe you have heard of India's festival of color or seen videos of people pelting each other with pigment until everyone is a walking rainbow. Well, the day for that, called Holi was Thursday and many in our crew were quite looking forward to an afternoon frolic of colorful fun. 

Well, it turned out that because of situations beyond control (apparently) the afternoon of fun was not possible, but that didn't stop a few determined individuals from jumping inattentive or willing crew members and giving them a dash of color.

I guess I fell into the "willing" category, although I would rather they had not been quite so liberal with the color on my nose. I also wish they had told me that normally people wash some of it off directly because otherwise it takes days to disappear. I still have a pink nose two days later! My shower stall looks like The Cat in the Hat has made a visit.

There was some more colorful fun after work but I missed that (as I was in meetings and having a hard enough time being taken seriously with my bright pink face without blue and green as well) and there were some great pictures from Hyderabad City of the Mayor and Governor covered in colors. I asked why this practice and why this holiday and what did it mean and I was told that the day before Holi is the day where lust and greed were purged by the death of a particular demon and that the whole color thing just seems like a great idea and no-one remembers why.

One thing is sure, when you have a face like this, everyone is quick to smile and wish you "Happy Holi!"

February is HOT!

Return of The Dork of the Desert

It's been hard to remember that it is winter here. Every day here is another day of intense sun and heat. Very un-February-like from a North American perspective. The days are short, but we work so hard it never seems short enough! The temps have gone from 85ºF to 90º and now 95º and higher. We have two more weeks to go and it seems like we'll have to start hitting 100º before we go back to Mumbai. It's not a constant heat though. It's quite pleasant in the mornings and evenings. The afternoons are where it really sets in and we all start hiding under hats and scarves and chasing the shadows for a bit of shade. It's really tough on the actors who have to wear black trench coats or suits of armor while performing action beats standing on pedestals or flying on wires. Not easy.

Sunrise from the Sitara Hotel

I haven't had much time to see Hyderabad though I still hope to make a trip to town. Like everywhere the work of making movies is somewhat all-consuming. I am one of the lucky ones who gets a day off here and there but I use the time to rest and to connect back home while I have a chance. Out here in Ramoji Film we still have some cool things to see with all the weddings and conferences and since we start early we also get to see some good sunrises.

PINK!

Some of the flowers around here are quite amazing at least in terms of color. The bougainvilleas are so bright that in some of the more intense pink shades they cannot even be photographed. This picture was taken on the road approaching Ramoji Film City. The motorbikes were stopping on the side of the road because the color was so intense.

It may be made of plastic but it's still a place where Shiva resides.

We sometimes see some strange collisions of culture here. They built this giant idol of Shiva for some TV show or movie and it just sits off the back of our city set. When there are religious holidays, people come and worship at it, even though we in the west would consider it a prop and of no spiritual significance, here no such distinctions are made. In fact trucks and tractors also become objects celebrating the Hindu deities. This is one of the tractors that pulls our green screens around.

Of course, we make distinctions about things like brand names, whereas here there is no concern at all about authenticity or the baldest type of brand adaptation. Check out this shirt. American Eagle is not imported here and although the makers of this shirt fear being sued for using the name exactly, they don't fear being nabbed for the cheesiest of evasions. It's one of the places where what passes for clever seems a bit overvalued here, but I am told that this is good marketing in the Indian economy. I mean this guy bought the shirt, right?

So now we head into March and more heat, then back to Mumbai where I am told it is "cold" with temps plunging into the low 70s. Luckily I brought a sweatshirt!

Real Indian Food

People always seem surprised about how much of the local cuisine I am willing to sample. Actually I like Indian food quite a lot. Some friends of mine are especially fond of extremely  spicy Indian food. (You know who you are you crazy pepper snorting fools!) Anyway, I was told that if I like that kind of spice then Hyderabad is the place to get it. Food is a big attraction here in Andra Pradesh. I've always liked biryani and here it is a speciality. The spices here are indeed more liberally applied than in Mumbai and they have truly found the right mix as far as I'm concerned: Just spicy enough to call it spicy without burning your mouth off to prove you can eat anything. I have grown fond of the masala omelettes which are a staple for breakfast. There's also a dish called egg burrhi which is a kind of scramble with peppers and spices and… well… I'm not sure what else, but it's good! There's a dairy just outside the walls of the studio that provides the caterers with fresh yogurt every day. That's also a treat.

Roti ready for the oven

Another delight of Indian cuisine is the bread called roti. There's a couple of types but the one  people love here is tandoor roti. The trick with roti is that it must be freshly baked and I mean freshly baked. Hot from the oven fresh. Most Indians won't eat roti that is cold. As such even on the set the roti must be baked on site. The caterers always include two bakers. Here in Hyderabad this is two guys with a 55 gallon drum rebuilt into a roti bakery. They fire it up with charcoal until the steel walls are ready to bake bread. 

The favorites! The roti bakers!

The oven has an overhanging curve of metal at the top which is heated from behind. The bakers form the dough into balls then the roti master flattens them in his hands, forms them onto a rounded mold which he uses to stick the dough to the underside of the heated metal overhang. When the roti is baked the second baker fishes it out with special hooks, then brushes butter all over it and ferries it to the food line. He rarely makes it that far though as calls of "roti!!" from the tables usually empty his basket long before he gets there. 

So here's a hint: when in India, sit near the bakers oven!

Ramoji Film City

One of the bigger fountains at Ramoji Film City

This place is incredible. I'm not sure how big it is, but thousands of acres I think. It was built by a very rich Indian fellow by the name of Ramoji, who lives on the property in a mansion. He built it as a series of generic locations for Indian filmmakers. It has everything. It really is a backlot in the tradition of Old Hollywood. There are several enormous stages, but that's a tiny part of the complex. The whole of the property is crisscrossed with paths and roads. Everywhere there are gardens and buildings, most of which are shells, statues, fountains and covered walkways, most of which are plastic. The spaces are huge. There's a massive double mural behind wrought steel gates that form the entrance to Ramoji Film City. There a fountains spanning hundreds of meters, tanks and pools with sculpted gators and waterfalls tumbling down between plastic rocks under bright neon lights after dark. There are Chinese and Japanese gardens, palaces, an airport terminal, a lake and rocky cliffs. 

A crazy lightshow waterfall by night

I'm told that so far I have seen only 30% of the place! 

A beautiful garden by day

The other amazing and fascinating thing about Ramoji Film City is that is it kept immaculately clean, like Disneyland clean, by constant human attention. There are no street sweepers or leaf blowers. It's all done by people with stick brooms. The whole place, even the sets and the stages are kept clean of litter and debris all the time everywhere. This is so completely opposite of my experience in Mumbai that it is surreal. Disneyland being cleaner than Anaheim is one thing. RFC being cleaner than Mumbai is a different range altogether. 

As I said in a previous post, It reminds me a lot of Sans Souci actually, which is a series of palaces and gardens that Frederick the Great built in Postdam outside Berlin in Germany. The eclecticism of Sans Souci  was born of a desire to be inclusive of a wide range of culture. Here it's designed to give international feel to Bollywood movies. It also provides lots of easy-to-use and therefore inexpensive set pieces for films from all over India where budgets are even more spare than Bollywood. The trick, I am told is to avoid overusing locations and giving away that you shot at RFC rather than a "real" location. 

Just a note on the word "Bollywood": this is Hindi cinema, traditionally made in Mumbai and including the music and dance numbers that have made Bollywood famous. This is only a part of Indian cinema. India is host to dozens of languages and all have their own cinema. Many of these regional films are shot at RFC as well.

OK, the HOLLYWOOD sign is too small…

Ramoji Film City also has a full amusement park, regular bus tours and is a destination for a lot of Indian tourists who ride the busses and walk the grounds looking for favorite locations from their favorite films. Sometimes they also get to see film crews in action, which is of course a big draw, but nothing compared to the chances of seeing a star or a famous director. That happens, too. Sometimes they even ask for autographs or pictures with guys who's skin is so light they must be from Hollywood. :-)

RFC is also a prime location for Indian weddings, which are massive, often last several days and include dinners for hundreds of guests, all-night dance parties, fireworks, light shows, concerts and lots of drinking and dancing. Overall RFC is way quieter than Mumbai, but not when there's a wedding going on!

So, it's nice here. I was told it would be boring but we're too busy for that and it's nice to be in a place that is clean and (mostly) quiet, well-appointed and comfortable. I think I will miss it when we hit the stages in Mumbai again in mid-March.

Welcome to Hyderabad

The Highway around Hyderabad! Where are the cars?

My second sojourn from Mumbai has taken to me to Hyderabad. My first flight on the dreaded Air India was fine. It wasn't the best airline I've ever flown but we got there with no drama and all our luggage came through so that's all that counts in the end. On arrival in Hyderabad we were greeted with the cleanest place I have yet seen in India. The airport is new and has all the trappings of a modern new airport: clean lines, beautiful landscaping stretching for miles in all directions, big wide roadways… wait a minute… are we still in India? Apparently this is all very new, but it covers a large area. We came out of the airport complex on to empty freeways, smooth as glass and stretching as far as the eye can see. Yes that's right, I said "empty." This is nothing like Mumbai where the freeways are a chaotic jumble of two-wheelers, trucks and cabs jostling for position regardless of lanes and zipping between gaps even Los Angelinos would shy from. It was so unexpected that I took pictures like it was a rare species of bird or something. The driver said it is all brand new and is a beltway circling the city at some distance.

Part of the Mural at the Entrance to Ramoji Film City

I didn't see the transition from this alien landscape to Hyderabad proper as we were headed for a property a ways outside the city called Ramoji Film City. RFC as it is called is a massive preserve built by Mr. Ramoji as a giant backlot, film studio and resort. Imagine an Indian Universal City with a backlot the size of MGM circa 1940 when almost all of Culver City was the MGM lot. It's huge and has every imaginable location somewhere on the property. It hosts tons of weddings, parties and other events and includes a theme park complete with a HOLLYWOOD sign. More on that as I explore.

The Sitara

I am staying in the nicest hotel on the grounds, the Sitara. It is quite nice with a beautiful pool, decent food and rooms that are very comfortable. The constant weddings with their lights, screamingly loud Indian music and rowdy drunken guests are a downside, but you can't have everything. The view is nice!

The view of the pool from my room

Sunset over the Ramoji Film City Theme Park

It's quite hot generally. The Mumbaikers complain about it but luckily for me I'm pretty good in the heat. Morocco has trained me to deal with it and oHIo will always be responsible for me appreciating that at least it's not cold. I still have my Dorks of the Desert™ hat to protect me. 

This place, sheltered as it is within the Bubble of Bollywood is a lot more comfortable to me than the streets of Mumbai. I'll be back there soon enough so I am enjoying this little working vacation.

India Part Two

The view from my new room at the Sun and Sand

Well here I am back in India. There seem to always be days when the whole thing is about to fall apart but eventually that has all been worked out to everyone's satisfaction and I am back in Mumbai. Christmas at home was brilliant apart from the uncertainties of doing business in India. The weather was great and we treasured every moment together. Now I am back for another stint, which will mostly involve shooting on stages and locations in Hyderabad and Mumbai.

Ho! Ho! Ho?

The people on the floor at Pixion were really great in greeting me back. It's nice to know that I have made a positive impression with the artists in my time here. They even left up all the Christmas decorations to make sure that I got to see them! That was sweet. 

I'm in a different hotel, right next to the Novotel where I was, called the Sun and Sand. It's quite a famous hotel, hosting film festivals and Bollywood meetings, but not as big or modern as the Marriott or even the Novotel. Ironically, I can look out my window now and look right into the room I had at the Novotel, about 150m away across two swimming pools.  Still right on the beach with a view of the ocean. The restaurants are not as big but just as good and the service is really good, too. It's more of an Indian feel as opposed to the more international feel (isn't that a song?) of the Novotel. It's a favorite of the film's director and many Americans have lived here when they were doing work for Bollywood. So that's been fine.

The weather here has also been good. Still mostly the 85º F and sunny which is the mainstay of Mumbai weather, but a few days in the 70s have made everyone happy. There's even been a few really clear days where the ocean wind blew away all the dust and pollution. That has soon returned but it was nice to see to the horizon for a change!

I got to attend a Bollywood party last week as well. The daughter of the director celebrated her birthday and so we had drinking and dancing long into the night. There was a stand-up comic who (typically) based his material around insulting people from other parts of India. I guess that's OK here… or not, but apparently funny to those who understood all the references. I learned how to do "traditional Indian dancing" which was fun, although the music was all non-traditional to say the least. Mostly technobeat remixes of Bollywood hits, including ones from past films by our star who was in attendance and the new tracks for our movie which we will be shooting in the upcoming weeks. All night we were chased around the place by two guys with devices filled with alcohol of unknown origin, which they funneled into people mouths with hoses, sometimes through ice, fruit or melon husks. I tried not to get caught too many times and as such was still walking when I left the party. I was one of the first to leave: at 2am. One of the highlights was the director expertly dancing with a glass of water balanced on his head. Keeping those theatrical skills alive! He is a famous Bollywood actor himself in addition to his fame as a director.

Saturday I head for Hyderabad which will be a whole new experience. We'll be at Ramoji Film City on the outskirts of Hyderabad. It's supposed to be isolated, hot and complicated. OK. Sounds like we'll be focused on the work and trying to keep in touch with what's happening back in Mumbai, where the visual effects work on the movie is commencing. We'll be testing the Indian internet with all the things we need to do to stay involved with shots in progress.

India Republic Day Parade from Delhi

Today is India Republic Day. The anniversary of the adoption of the Indian Constitution. There were big military parades on TV all day. The hotel staff assembled for the raising of the Indian flag outside the hotel at 10am. Not nearly the action in the streets that I have seen for the Hindi religious festivals. The fireworks for those holidays went of for days. There's been nothing for this. Maybe tonight there will be some sponsored by the government. Like many things the government does here, it may be largely ignored by the majority, or like the parade in Delhi, it's a ticketed event that takes place under the highest security.

So it's another new adventure coming up this weekend in a new city with a different community around me. As always, every day is a learning experience. More from Hyderabad!

December was a blur!

Well, December was packed. My last post was just after Thanksgiving and then we went "onto the floors" as they say here. That means "into the studio" in American parlance. After that everything is kind of a blur. We shot 12-14 hour days every day for twenty straight days between 1 December and 20 December. I barely had time to sleep never mind blog. Overall things went very well. The sets were under constant construction as we shot the film, but they look great on film. We had all the major stars of our film at one time or another in attendance and usually shooting scenes. The Director is very good and his work is focused. He's editing the film together as we shoot it. It is really great to see it all come together so quickly.

One of the great stories of the month was the first few days where the son of the Director, who is also the star of the film showed up, not as the star, but as an Assistant Director. He worked like crazy making everything right which was really a testament to his dedication. The other thing about his work on those days was that it was clear he was doing it because he loved it and also because it was the first days of his Dad's new film and he was there for him and to make it right. How cool is that? You have to realize also how a big a star this guy is. Imagine Tom Cruise coming onto a set on a day that he didn't need to be there and working with the extras and secondary players to get them in the right places and dumping his hands into a bucket of green slime to make sure it is applied to the actors just right for the shot because it's his Dad's movie and he has been doing it since he was ten years old. Great stuff.

It's the latest rage!

So there wasn't a lot of "seeing India" during December. We did eat a lot of good Indian food every day and I got a chance to see how the Indian labor market works. In short, where we would rent a forklift and an operator if we needed to move a big stack of plywood from one end of the set to the other, here they just hire 50 people and they carry it. So there's a lot of "day players" as we call them. That creates some security problems and I lost a camera because of it. I get called all over at a moments notice and I have to carry everything with me or risk losing it. In the shuffle late in the shoot I somewhere set down my video camera and bang it was gone. This was after the ADs had already embarrassed me at least once by walking up and handing me my phone after I dropped it somewhere. Yikes. Sometimes it's hard to keep a grip. I'm pretty bummed about losing the camera, but it's not like I wasn't warned.

Near the end of the shoot I was gifted a terrific turban from the AD's. I had jokingly pretended to adore a specific billboard with this salesman (entertainer?) wearing this huge orange fan-adorned turban with a big tail on it, saying, "I love that hat!" So they got me one! It was so popular that all the Chinese stunt guys wanted turbans, too. Group photo!

I had time for one banzai run at the shops before heading home on the 22nd. Raksha, the 1st AD again was amazing, taking me to places I would never have managed without her, searching for Ganpati and uniquely Indian shirts and gifts. 

Cathay Pacific Comfort

I got on the plane late night at Mumbai and was on my way back to the USA for another dose of reverse culture shock. I again went through Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific. That was a sweet ride actually. I quite like that airline. All the business class seats are set in single rows like diagonal parking, so you have some privacy and it's easy to sleep. I saw some good movies, too, most notably Senna the documentary about the famous Brazilian F1 driver. That was very moving for me as I was always a big fan of Senna and seeing his career and death chronicled so well was quite affecting.

So Christmas was at home. I won't recount that here (coz it's not India!) but there will be pics on the bertonspero.com page soon.