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 finalised  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, equipments, 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 toMumbai. 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 & 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, one should not 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  Int'national 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 & 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 behaviour of Mr Mohan Hari and lo and behold, a director was born.  I became the child of circumstances.

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 thats the case the Color corrections, Rerecording , Effects, had to be over in 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 Feburary were planned for Shooting and Editing of the 1st rough cut. The month of November was alloted to do the entire Preproduction, 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 & advance was paid. Application with censor board was also filed.

A four to five pages of the story idea was to be converted into a script. Sandeep Pendse the writer from Pune was the Screenplaywriter. 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 thats were my problems were compounded... With Shammi Aunty , Paintel & the Child artistes & 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, titled"Jaya bachchan playing favourites"

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 & Director is not conducive to do a creative job ?
 Look out for Part 2  How Not to Make a Film.... in the next post..... 

Of December... Archer.....Shatrughan Sinha ....Hello DD etc..

We all know,  people born in the month of December are Saggitarius or the Archers.  
They say if you want the truth, go and ask Sagittarius.
 They are right, you can ask him and he will tell you all the truth and in a very straight forward manner.

If you have problems all your friends  may feel sorry for you, but Sagittarius will be the one who will give you a helping hand first and even expect no return favor. That's why he is a real charmer.

L to R  lyricist Sameer,Poonam Sinha ,Monish Prem & Mukesh sharma

 The Archer is  a happy soul and has a good sense of humour. He loves freedom , is lively and very energetic. 

 He flirts like other man, but he has a built in brake, so he will come back to you by himself. If he disappear for a few days, not to worry for he is only recharging his battery to be  rejuvenated and will be back with a bang.

Bollywood is full of successful male  born in the month of :

DECEMBER

6th Shekhar Kapoor                                                 
8th Dharmendra 
9th SHATRUGHAN SINHA
11th Dilip Kumar 
12th RajniKanth 
14th Raj Kapoor
17th John Abraham  
21st Govinda
Though all the above personalities share the common Zodiac Symbol , yet they are distinct & unique in their own way.


Out of the list, only Shatrughan Sinha came to Doordarshan Kendra Mumbai to participate in the LIVE Hello DD Programme.   Conceived by me in the beginning of 2000 AD, it was the most successful live programme of Doordarshan on National Network. It ran for more then 5 years.


 Doing a live Phone In programme was a broadcasting risk both for the channel as well as the celebrity. But Mr Shatrughan Sinha (who was reluctant initially), came for the Hello DD show at DDK Mumbai and that too at 9am Sharp, all the way from Juhu to Worli.  I have been told , I was lucky in achieving this feat (to ensure that Mr Sinha was on time for the live telecast ). Because if Mr Shatrughan Sinha was late , it would have been a broadcasting fiasco and my job would have been on stake.
Thank you Sir for saving a fellow Sagittarius from being jobless.

Shatrughan Sinha, Mukesh Sharma, Pahlaj Nihlani and Poonam Sinha at DD Mumbai

He was mesmerised by the professionalism of DDK  Mumbai. He complimented the TV station in his inimitable style which is cut  &  pasted on the web-log.  

 9th December is the Birthday of Mr Shatrughan Sinha . I join with all his fans worldwide and wish him a happy, healthy & prosperous life .

Remembering R. Venkataraman - 8th President of India on his 100th Birth Anniversary

R. Venkataraman  4th December 1910 – 27th January 2009

   Its an honor to complete a Century in any field. Its an achievement to do so in the field of lifespan. If R Venkataraman were alive on 4th Dec 2010, he would have been 100 years old. I am remembering the former President , because I had a chance to shake hands with him for two consecutive years.

Mukesh  Sharma awarded the special Mention Certificate from R Venkataraman

In  1989  I was awarded the Special Mention Certificate for Directing the Children's feature film (35mm), Anokha Aspatal (Unique Hospital), from the President of the Republic of India, during the 6^th International Children's Film Festival.

R Venkataraman felicitates Bijoy Madhou( Mautitus) & Mukesh Sharma( India) for the National award

In 1990 I was the winner of the National Award for the best Children's Film, 1990, from the President of India R Venkataraman, as the Producer-in-Charge of the Indo-Mauritius co-production entitled Ankur Maina aur Kabootar produced by Children's Film Society, India.
  On both the occasion I found immense warmth in the hands of the former President. May his soul rest in peace.

Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrants... .

CEO Ryan Pinto Felicitates Mukesh Sharma

Siddhartha Mukherjee, Mukesh Sharma , Anil Wanwari

  With a motive to bring about changes in the existing educational system and to provide quality education to students, Ryan International Group of Institutions hosted the ASISC Conference, a three day event from 24th Nov. to 26th Nov. 2010, inviting nearly 1200 ICSE school  principals from all over India at Renaissance convention centre, Mumbai.The Conference was inaugurated by the. Governor of Maharashtra H.E   K.Sankaranarayanan .
Apart from various sessions involving Harsha Bhogle( on sports and; education), Dr Kiran Bedi ( for a key note address ),  a session on "Influence of Media and its implications on School Leadership"  was chaired by me. The other panelists were Anil Wanvari  (CEO Indiantelevision.com), Siddhartha Mukherjee (Sr. VP & Head of Communications TAM) & Shaji Jose(Editor, "Aspiration Unlimited") .

The connecting links between the D.Natives & D Immigrants

As the topic suggests the principals were in a media bashing mood. But ducking their googleys, I managed to survive the session, by changing the course of session without changing the topic.The principal wanted to talk about the Media Content ,whereas  I was keen to talk about the Media Tools lacking in the School education system. My concern was based on the fact that the school going children are living in two universe . At home they do multitasking & are always wired with ipods, laptops, computers, video game consoles, mp3 players, television sets etc.& are doing amazing creative work with technology, apart from their home work & school projects..In fact they spend more time with the media than any other activity other than sleeping.

A digital native with Poonam Shatrughan Sinha

 At School the universe changes to chalk ,duster, blackboard & a teacher who is not as media savvy as the children. In fact at school the Digital Natives  (Children) interact with the Digital Immigrants (teachers). So there is a big gap and this wide culminates to a  digital divide, that if not filled soon will give rise to a total disconnect between the present and past generation.
The problem with the 50 plus lot is that they are not at all comfortable with the digital technology nor they are keen to learn it. I have seen senior Govt officers, School principals having computers on their side table, which is most of the time covered with a nice cloth. The solution is to start education through computers at school.                                                                                                                  

The Digital Immigrants

But the trainer must be trained first in order to get connected. Simply by providing the new technology will not help. It should be embraced by the teacher &
should not be forced upon anyone. Media must be integrated with the curriculum. In other words curriculum needs to drive the technology and not the other way round.
Last but not the least, every medium till date what we know is on the internet right next to each other.From Print,Music, Books, Photography,Radio, Video, films subsuming all previous mediums. How long will the stake holders of our generation, continue to ignore this reality, thats a million dollar quesition.....

A lot can happen over a cup of Tea.....

After Sahara Shree , another unassuming person whom I share a special bond is Ameen Sayani.... The Golden Voice of Radio.

The other day he was in my office at All India Radio to finalise broadcast of his radio programmes. I told him, he could have called me at his work place instead of taking the trouble to come all the way. But being a gentleman (as he is) he politely put his hand on my shoulder as if to say lets not talk about it. He was looking forward for a cup of Special Tea which is my trade mark.

I am lucky to have had the opportunity to have offered the tea to a great many celebrities , film personalities & political figures while I was heading Doordarshan Mumbai .

In fact once Malvika Sanghvi suddenly came to meet me in my office at Doordarshan . I was having my special tea . I got up from my chair went to my ante room, in a jiffy I was back with a fresh cup of tea for her . I could see she was surprised and her journalistic mind was a bit confused to understand that how can a Govt Babu do this. She did not comment much ,finished her work and left.

Next day the Times Of India carried an article about Malvika Sangghvi's

visit to Doordarshan Kendra Mumbai.

She wrote "............The times they really are changing .What a pleasant surprise to walk in to the Doordarshan headquarters in Mumbai and encounter a director who is so unlike the average government babu. Mukesh Sharma director DDK Mumbai wears spiffy suits. Offers guests personally brewed exotic tea, picks up the phone himself and keeps appointment to the dot.........." .

Coming back to Ameen Bhai, he enjoyed my cup of tea. We went down the memory lane. His association with All India Radio, Binaca Geetmala Days etc. etc.

As Ameen Bhai was leaving, I was wondering what life would have been without his golden voice for our generation when there were no TV channels , no multiplexes, no internet and no mobile phones to entertain us. I salute you SIR for being with us right from our school days till today. May your Golden voice continue to inspire todays DJS, & RJs of our times...The J is Jockeys and not Jokers, unless you are reading between the lines.

OWBT...

Jayashree Balasubramanian, Aaj Tak Chennai 600 040, India

Osei Boakye, TV-3 Network, Ghana

Anura Fonseka, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation

Iffat Jabbar, Radio Pakistan

Mukesh Sharma, Doordarshan, India