My phone rings at 3 AM much before my alarm could buzz. It’s our driver. He is on his way. I go back to sleep. Finally, my alarm buzzes at 3:30 AM – time to wake up. Hoping not to disturb my room-mate I walk back and forth like a shadow in my room searching for things. I take a quick shower but my face already is damp and sweaty. A hot morning- a bad news for me. Because I have to work outdoor today.
I manage to find a kurta thrown in with a pair of old jeans. I carry props, costumes, snacks and water bottles. My phone rings – the driver is here. I manage to carry my folders, cell phones along with different bags hanging from all sides of my arms and hands. I hop down the staircase. I feel the hot air on my face. Inside Bolero, I have the AC but somehow I never liked ACs in vehicles. I try to shut my eyes and have a little sleep before we pick up my Talent. But the driver is in a chatting mood. He must have had his early morning tea or coffee. I try to respond but in very brief sentences. We pass half an hour in a lousy chat before we arrive to pick up the Talent (actor who is portraying the main protagonist of my story).
I ring her up and wait for the gate to open. Here she comes along with her mom. Her mom tells me to feed her well and I give her a warm and faithful smile. My talent gets in the car and I can see that she is very excited about the shoot today. We pick up rest of the crew – camera person, field assistant and another new assistant who is here to learn the job. At 6 AM, we reach the location. It makes me happy that we can start rolling early.
It’s a small village about 2 hours drive from Delhi. I had first come here expecting green fields and nice clean mud houses but all that I found was dry open space with no trees and no greenery and in one rocky corner small huts assembled.
I meet my local contact, a woman who is so kind to me. Almost butterly she says, “What service can I offer you, madam?” I need a place where my talent can dress up. She takes us to a cow shed. We stoop down and enter inside. This one has walls only in two sides the rest is open. We go back to another shack, it’s pitch dark inside. Then we walk to her house. It is the best that she can offer us. So we settle our bags around her single room house and chase her kids outside.
When my talent comes out of the house draped in a simple saree, hair pulled back and a sullen eye make up –I can hardly believe it’s the same girl who minutes back was a leggy lass with tight jeans and t-shirt. In that moment I forget about the heat and the huge crowd that’s following us disrupting our work sometimes. I am ready to work. We begin to shoot our first scene. It goes very well. A good start of the day.
By the time, we finish couple of scenes I can see my crew members sweating like pigs. I ask for face tissues and dry my talent’s face who is sweating profusely down her neck. Her cheeks gone red. I pity her. I send her back to the car and ask the driver to run the AC. Meanwhile I discuss next scene and location with the crew. In the middle of our discussion, every now and then we wipe our sweating face. We decide to move to the exact location and compose the frame. Camera person and the assistant immediately proceed. I am left with three reflectors and I look for the new assistant for help. He is not there. When I make a noise, the driver comes and tells me that he is sitting inside the car with the talent inhaling cool AC air. What? I laugh. I rush to the car and ask him, ‘What are you doing here?” with a huge Q on my face. Poor guy-he slowly gets off the car, wrinkles his face and says, “It’s quite challenging”. I had warned him of the heat. So he came well prepared with shades and shorts but I guess it wasn’t enough preparation.
We finish shooting rest of the scenes. By this time, water bottles are empty. Snacks are over and we are hungry. And the noon sun is burning us. At last, our talent is spared of the ordeal of changing costume and make up. Our last scene: My talent is draped in saree and a pair of chappals. She holds a toddler with one hand around her waist. A small boy and a girl hold her another hand and as a family who lost their pillar of strength, the husband and the father – they emerge as survivors as they walk towards the camera in a narrow street.
Pack up time. I know who is the happiest at this time – our new assistant. We drive back to Delhi to do couple of more scenes in my flat. My crew works so hard to set up the light. I finish giving my talent direction and fishhhh… goes the light off. Again, we sweat and wait for the electricity to come. A glass of cool coke doesn’t help much. Then we try to do something in natural light. We need reflectors – so I send the new assistant to run down and get it from the vehicle. When he goes down, I learn that the vehicle is locked and the driver forgot the keys inside. Well in this terrible heat, that’s the last thing I would want my crew to do – to try to open the vehicle.  But the new assistant suddenly is very energized. He takes couple of tools from my flat tries all tricks to roll down the window glass. Lo and behold! he does open it in about twenty minutes. Am I not glad that he is part of my crew today? Of course I am. It’s another thing that the moment we start rolling in natural light electricity comes back and we move back to our original frame with lighting and all.
We finish all planned work for the day. By the time, lunch arrives on our table it is about 3:30 PM. It is the most sumptuous meal. Since I got the first pick up in the morning, I get the first drop. I reach home at 5 PM, take a nice leisure shower and get ready to sleep. Jut then my flat mate walked in and is in a mood to chat. And I try to respond to her in brief sentences. But my eyes literally shutting down, my head is spinning and I can’t sit straight in that dinning chair. So I tell her, excuse me, and sneak off to my bed for a good sleep.
So this is a day at work.