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!