The next morning a van picked us up and drove us about 45 kilometers southeast of Mumbai to Karjat, where ND Studio has a huge campus with multiple sets for filming movies and TV series. When we arrived we found out that we were not going to be in a Bollywood film but rather Episode #432 of Jhansi Ki Rani, which translates to 'Queen of Jhansi'. We were assigned roles - British soldiers during the 1800's, and put into our costumes.
I should mention now that it's about 95 degrees in Mumbai. Standing in the sun for half of the day in a thick felt overcoat sucked. But that aside, being an extra in Bollywood was awesome. The set was made to look like the Red Fort in Delhi.
We filmed four different scenes with little to no direction given in English and did about 10 takes of each scene. In every single take, I tried to do something different that would get picked up by the camera. For example, I was wearing my white G-Shock under my costume, and I was trying to have it stick out from under the sleeve of my coat whenever I cocked my musket during one take...you know, since most British soldiers in the 1800's rocked G-Shocks. I was just trying to maintain the historical accuracy. I think my favorite scene was one in which we were "directed" to run into a courtyard, look around, turn and point our muskets at an actress standing in a tower, and then run in different directions on cue. In every one of the takes for this scene, instead of just running down the pathway through the courtyard, Guy and I immediately hurdled over a row of bushes in an attempt to get some more camera time. I guess I'll have to wait and see which takes the director actually uses.
The best part about the whole day for me was the fact that we had NO idea what the script was about. The director would just tell us to do things and to act a certain way, and I have no idea what the TV series, or this episode, is about. We only filmed for about three hours during a nine-hour "work day". A lot of our time was spent in the Green Room, a name that now makes perfect sense to me.
When we were on set but not filming we were just hanging out and chatting with the stars of the show - a guy from California with minimal acting experience/talent, and a few legitimate Bollywood stars who I'd obviously never heard of. Most of the day we were just messing around with the other extras, who were all teenage Indian guys.
Things escalated pretty quickly, and I suddenly found myself in a Mexican standoff with two Indian boys. No casualties to report.
I even got to pose on a horse. Just trying to maintain historical accuracy again...19th century British soldiers were big on fake Armani shades.
I asked the director for a speaking part but he was thoroughly unimpressed with my Hindi. Oh well. At the end of the day they even paid me 500 rupee for my potentially Oscar-worthy performance. If the whole law school thing doesn't pan out, I can always just act in Bollywood.
The episode airs on Zee TV here in Mumbai at 8 PM and will be available on the internet soon after. Trust me, I'll be posting the link.
No comments:
Post a Comment