Thus Spake.... Pandit Jasraj born on 28th Jan 1930 ............MANY HAPPY RETURNS OF THE DAY..

Mukesh Sharma with Pt. Jasraaj....... Walk the Talk

"When I entered the Studio today, there was a person , cultured, handsome & waiting to welcome me at the entrance . Little did I know that he was the "Boss"- the station director. For the first time in my numerous visits to DD did I find a Warmth, hospitalityand atmosphere just like home, making me wish to come here again and again. Kudos and keep it up! I shall be back soon......JAI! HO!"...........

Mukesh Sharma & Pt. Jasraaj....... Tips from the Master

The inaugration of the National Museum of Indian Cinema

Old Film Museum Building

 19th January 2019 will go down in the annals of history as a red letter day when the National Museum of Indian Cinema opened its doors after a decade for the common man when the PM of India inaugurated it.  
                                                              

In an animated Conversation with the PM of India

                   

 

In an animated conversation with the PM Mr Narendra Modi.

                                                                                                                                        
  Presented on the occasion were the Ch Vidya Sagar Rao, Hon'ble Governor of Maharashtra, Chief Minister of Maharashtra Mr Devendra Fadnavis. I & B Minister Mr Rathod , Education Minister Mr Vinod Tawde, Amir Khan, Asha Bhosle , Kapil sharma ,AR Rehman and other celebrities.

Hon'ble Governor of Maharashtra C Vidyasagar Rao

Minister of I & B Rajayavardhan Rathod

 
 I too was a part of the making of the museum when DGs of Film Division, changed hands like the participants in the relay race. When I got the baton the most crucial decision was the speed with which the artifacts and interior design of the new building was to be decided.
 

with Amir Khan

Vinod Tawde Minister of Education Govt Of Maharashtra

 
I too was a part of the making of the museum when DGs of Film Division, changed hands like the participants in the relay race. When I got the baton the most crucial decision was the speed with which the artifacts and interior design of the new building was to be decided.
 

New premises of National Museum of Indian Cinema

 This was the year 2016 when I was holding the additional Charge of Director General  Films Division (apart from being the additional DG of Doordarshan representing West zone, South zone DDK Mumbai and Head of the Commercial division of Prasar Bharti .

Inside the New Film Museum

And that’s where I was lucky to have Shri Sunil Arora as the I & b Secretary (he is now Chief election Commissioner of India) who gave momentum to my speed during my tenure of 18th months as DG Films division and the project got the required kick . Rest is History. 

Sunil Arora Chief Election Commissioner & Former I& B Secretary

 I am happy that PM was apprised of this fact when he met me at the Inaugural Ceremony.

All said a done the Museum is worth a visit specially the media students. The Film museum is opened from Tuesday to Sunday from 11am to 5pm.

In an animated Conversation with the PM of India

HOW NOT TO MAKE A FILM....PART 3

 Tom Alter's absence reversed roles and Mukesh Sharma donned the grease

 In my last post I had mentioned how I managed to complete the shooting of the film Anokha  Aspatall at Kanpur in 35 days. I was very much within the time schedule, thanks to my backward planning.
The rough cut was viewed by the Chairperson CFSI and her team.

Jaya Bachchan ..... committed chairperson of CFSI 

After viewing the rough cut, Mrs Jaya Bachchan and others  looked at each other. There was a silence. And then madam spoke. ''Your rough was different from the story line..But there is  a vast  improvement in the overall  presentation of the script. However you need to re-edit  the film so that flash forward becomes flash back. Also with some more outdoor shooting, you can do away with the claustrophobia that film suffers from. Some portions of the film only require new voice dubbing, since the characters are in long shot. In a nutshell if your graph was A to Z, you may now open the film with Z  i.e flash back. Accordingly you can re arrange the  story line as per the new suggested script". Thus spake the chairman of CFSI.  On my face was the simple expression of being CLULESS and the voice of Mrs Bachchan "So you understood Mukesh . Please ensure the dead line of 31st March is adhered to, as the film has to be censored on or before that date".  "Yes ma'am It will be done".was my instant reply. She left and I regrouped my  team members. We had only a month left to complete the film.
Like my school friend Mr Naresh Upadhaya who helped me in my production work, another  team member Mr Rajesh Aggarwal, (who was from the 1965 Editor batch of FTII Pune) was instrumental in bailing me out, with his editing skills and creative inputs.

Rajesh Aggarwal

Naresh Upadhaya.......  Mr Reliable...

Here I would like to mention another CFSI  colleague of mine Rudolf Samson or Eddie. Besides me he was also a full time staff of CFSI and worked as an assistant. Though technically his boss, I learned quite a lot about film making from Eddie. His father  Samson was an old time Bollywood leading man and worked in B grade movies. I write this with a very heavy heart that Eddie died of Cancer couple of years ago.
  The revised rough was ready in 2 days as we worked day and night. Once we knew, what we need to  re-shoot we were back at Kanpur.

Veteran Shammiji with Padmini the Elephant...

 As usual the first hurdle was the non availability of  the elephant, as she was transferred to Dudhwa  National Park, which is about 80 kms from the place of shoot. Since the elephant could not be transported, she started her grand elephant walk from the wild life sanctuary and reached Kanpur in 3 to 4 days. The second shock was the green cover or foliage which was missing due to the onset of Spring in Northern India. This would upset the continuity of the film. We started searching for some green patch to finish our work and I found one. The patch was like a Mirage in the desert.Somehow we completed our shooting and were back in Mumbai in the first week of March 1989.

Sound Studio....working backwards

By the 2nd week of March 89 we were ready with the revised rough cut and were all set for BG music, effects recording, voice dubbing and mixing or re recording. It is at this juncture that  I asked Rajesh Aggarwal (the Editor Colleague), to visit Sunny Sound Studio and organize the post production work. As written in my earlier post, we had booked the Sunny Studio and paid the advance for the Rerecording etc without even having shot a single frame.

The Gentleman...

 When Mr Rajesh Aggarwal reached the studio, he saw  Dharmendra (the He man of Bollywood)  holding the Studio diary and finalizing  the dates for the dubbing of his film. Unfortunately he was looking for the same chunk of last 10 days of March 89, which we had booked and paid for. Some how Rajesh Aggrawal  managed to gather courage and spoke to Dharam Paji. "Sir we had booked the studio 3 months ago prior to the commencement of shooting. We had already applied for censor certificate.  Some how, in spites of the odds, we have managed to keep our date with destiny. Now if you take the studio, Mrs Jaya Bachchan will not be able to keep her promise to the nation. We are supposed to complete it before 31st March 1989. " Though it was Dharmaji's studio he could have overlooked our commitment and gone ahead, yet he was more then a gentleman. He shifted his base to Madras(Chennai) for his post production work and saved the day for us.

Anokha Aspatal was premiered in cinema at Mauritius 

The pearl in Indian ocean

Need less to mention the film Anokha Aspatal was censored on 31st March1989. As promised, Mrs Jaya  Bachchan brought the final print with her as her personal baggage to Port Louis.  I could not see the final print in India as  I was sent on duty to Mauritius, to start shooting of the Indo Mauritius co production "Operation Pink Pigeon" (or Ankur maina aur Kabootar). This film too won the National Award. But that's another story..

Hope you  enjoyed reading... the making of Anokha Aspatal....
Wishing you all a very happy 2019....

HOW NOT TO MAKE A FILM....PART 2

The great elephant walk...

  SHOOTING AT KANPUR ZOO-ALLEN FOREST
Finally  the entire ging -bang left from Mumbai to Kanpur for shooting . There were many firsts in the making of Anokha Aspatal. It was Saroj Mukherjee the story writer's first film. Alok Upadhaya , FTII (chief assistant to KK Mahajan, Ace Cinematographer), was for the first time independently handling the Cinematography for a feature film. Sharang Dev, son of Pandit Jasraj, it was his maiden effort as a composer. For me it was my directorial debut . One mistake and all our careers  would bite the dust even before it could take off.
DEVIATION FROM THE SCRIPT..

No Kid-ding

During my location hunting  visit in Aug '88  with Mohan Hari ( the director who left the project mid way), we had finalized  a lion cub and some more wild animals for shooting at Kanpur Zoo- Allen forest . How ever, now after 5 months when we reached the locale, to our dismay we found that the lion cub was no more a cute cuddly animal. It had grown and was now not suitable for our  shooting. Accordingly the same was replaced by a kid (young one of a goat).
ERA OF MULTI TASKING.....

Balancing  Nature....

 That was the beginning of deviation from the script. The dialogue  had to be rewritten . Fortunately being a multi tasking person, I could write the Hindi dialogues of the film  on a regular basis at the location during shooting, due to the ongoing changes in the script. This was in addition to my being the production controller of the film as well as the creative director. Not to mention the fact that I was the lone representative from Children's Film Society, India(CFSI), the rest of the  production crew was on contract for the project. In fact keeping a track of the raw stock, equipment's, exposed film, bank account operations etc.was suppose to be my main job assignment.

Posing for the camera..

 A FRIEND IN NEED....
In midst of all this, the creativity was bound to take a back seat. To ensure that I do not compromise with the creative aspect of the film , I decided to rely on an old school friend of mine to look after the  production matters. More soever I had to ensure that bills/receipts etc were properly collated and accounts maintained since we were dealing with public funds. This was his first assignment as a production manager  (he worked for a PSU and had taken leave to help me) . He too had his shortcomings in production matters which I had to help him overcome. But getting a loyal worker and thereby ensuring that there was no misappropriation of funds was a great relief for me.

The cub that gave us the nightmare..

 EVERY DAY IS NOT SUNDAY.....
 In one line, the story of the film was about an old women , who stays in the forest with his grandson and wild animals come on their own for treatment.Getting untrained animals from the zoo  for shooting was a nightmare. Some how we managed to take work from them without deviating from the screenplay. But every day is not a Sunday.  Once it so happened that we had to shoot with a lion cub. The cub was tranquilized by a specialist veterinary doctor. After the shot was over the lion cub was kept inside a small artificial pit and was under observation as it was still under the influence of the drug.We were required to take some more shots once the cub was fully conscious. A production boy was asked to keep a watch. But destiny had other plans.
THE CUB THAT GAVE US NIGHTMARE.....

No animal was hurt during the shooting..

 We were on the other side of the zoo planning for another shot. Suddenly a crew member came running to us shouting that the lion cub has run out of the pit and was freely roaming in the zoo.People were running helter skelter. There was chaos and commotion all around. Some how after a lot of chase the cub was taken captive by the zoo authorities, who were quite upset at the way we mishandled the entire operation. I was summoned to meet the Zoo warden of Allen forest. I knew my Shooting Days were numbered.. He wanted us to pack and leave. But the sincerity of  purpose, my commitment and  work ethics, made him change his mind and I was given one more chance.

The cub that ran out of the pit...

TOM ALTERED THE SCRIPT....

Replacing Tom Alter at the 11th hour

Meanwhile the script was again altered as the lion cub was no more a part of the Shooting .We continued with our work for some more days when another blow came through a telegram that Tom Alter will not be able to join us for shooting as he had grief in the family.  His shooting was scheduled for the next day.Tom was suppose to play the role 

of a poacher in the film. That very night I drove down from Kanpur  to Lucknow and went straight to my parents house, picked up overcoats, hats  etc and returned by midnight to the location. Next morning I donned the grease and became Mr Smith the poacher from Rangoon , and was ready to face the camera.

THE THREE  I,s IN CRISIS....

My principle in life is, where I spend Money I don't spend Time and vice versa. However in the case of Anokha Aspatal I was  both short of Time as well as Money. And this forced me to be Innovative , Ingenious and Imaginative. The three "I's" which continue to be with me till date and compensate me during creative emergencies/ crisis..

The poacher's den...

                                                                    

 BOLT FROM THE BLUE .............                                                                 

Around mid Feb1989, we managed to complete the35 days of shooting schedule and returned to Mumbai. I was keen to see the rushes.In those days it was not instant to see the camera results. Labs would take time to process the films.By and large the film rushes were good. I was keen to see my portion of  shooting. It came as a shock to see that light  was bleeding  all around in our night scenes.The cameraman had no answer. Instead of finding faults I decided to promote the defected portion as a special effect in the scene.But in my heart I was keen to reshoot the scene. Will I get a chance to do? How will Mrs Jaya Bachchan react?

Lights bleeding or so called Special effect...

PREMIER IN MAURITIUS....
Mean while, upon my return Mrs  Bachchan told me that she has decided to hold the premier of  the film at Mauritius and the date has been fixed for 7th April1989.  Another deadline . Now I had to again rework my backward planning as 7th April  on the calender was smiling at me..
PREVIEW OF ROUGH CUT
I started the editing of the rough cut which was ready by the end of Feb 89. It was seen by Mrs Bachchan, Pushpa Bharti (wife of Dharmvir Bharti, former editor of Dharmyug), and Vishnu Mathur (FTII graduate) along with my post production team.

Paintal giving a dry bath to the elephant...

 What Happened when Mrs Jaya Bachchan and others saw the rough cut?
Was it a rough ride or was it a smooth sailing for me?
What were the reaction of  the experts when they saw the so called Special Effect portion in the rough cut?
Let me  answer all the above in my next post :- How not to make a film part 3 . Watch Out.!!!

HOW NOT TO MAKE A FILM - PART 1

International recognition or not, never make a film the way Anokha Aspatal was made

HOW NOT TO MAKE A FILM.....

How to make a film, ask Subhash Ghai  and he will tell you.. How not to make a film , (the way I made), you can learn from this Post.

The year was 1988. Jaya Bachchan was appointed as the Chairman of Children's film Society,India.

 She had taken over the reigns from Mr Amol Palekar, who had resigned from CFSI along with the board members due to bureaucratic hurdles. Mrs Bachchan was a Chairman in a hurry. She wanted to ensure production of at least one film from CFSI by March 31st 1989.

Anokha aspatal was screened at the Frankfurt International Film Festival

 HUNT FOR THE DIRECTOR.....

The hunt for the director began and Mr Mohan Hari (an FTII graduate) was chosen to direct the film Anokha Aspatal .The story of the film was written by Saroj Mukherjee . It was about an old woman who lives in the forest and animals come on their own for treatment.

Being the producer of the film, on behalf of CFSI, I went with Mohan Hari in the month of Oct 1988 for location hunting at Kanpur. We chose Allen Forest(a zoo) as our shooting location, since we could get all the animals for filming and the surroundings of it were more like a forest then a zoo.

Shammi and Master Ankur

CHILD OF CIRCUMSTANCES....

The shooting was planned for the month of December '88, since Mrs Jaya Bachchan had promised to the Parliament that CFSI will produce a new film by 31st March 1989.

Man proposes and God disposes. Mr Mohan Hari the director of the film had other plans. He took a parallel assignment with Films Division and left for Orissa for shooting.

 Mrs bachchan was quite upset with the unprofessional behavior of Mr Mohan Hari and lo and behold, a director was born.  I became the child of circumstances by default.

WORKING BACKWARDS.....

It was the beginning of November '88, when I finally embarked on the production. Keeping 31st March 1989 as the censor date, I decided to do backward planning.
That means before censoring of the film I must have the the final print by 28th March. If that's the case the Color corrections, Rerecording , Sound Effects, had to be ready by the 3rd / 4th week of March '89. The final rough cut of the film with Voice dubbing, should be with ready within the first week of March'89.

December,January and February were planned for Shooting and Editing of the 1st rough cut. The month of November was allotted to do the entire Pre-production, Screenplay, Dialogues etc.

First Film  of  Sharang Dev as Music Composer ...

 THEATER BOOKED WITHOUT SHOOTING A FRAME....

Sunny Sound theater at Juhu was booked for 10 days in the 3rd week of March, with out shooting a single frame of Anokha Aspatal and advance was paid. Application with censor board was also filed. All this was done even before shooting a frame of the film.

A four to five pages of the story idea was to be converted into a script. Sandeep Pendse the writer from Pune was the Screenplay writer. Alok Upadhaya was the cinematographer. Sharang Dev was the Music Director and I was the director .... All of us were first timers.
In addition to Directing the film I was also the Producer of Anokha Aspatal on behalf of CFSI . And that's were my problems were compounded... With Shammi Aunty( She expired recently) , Paintel  the Child artistes and animals; managing production, maintaining accounts, writing Hindi dialogues, my platter was full. The icing on the platter(pun intended) was the news item in the Times of India, dated 23/2/1989 titled"Jaya bachchan playing favorites"

One of the Best Chairperson of CFSI ...

Was I successful in my Back ward planning of things?
What happened during shooting at the Zoo in Kanpur?
 Did the film got censored on 31st March 1989? ....
Why the twin job of both Producer and Director was not conducive to do a creative job ?
 Look out for Part 2  How Not to Make a Film......