JJ's Blog Featuring S.S. (Little Miss) & Monique: An Evening Spent at Movie Shoot

Dated: 18th January 2009
Location: Worli, Mumbai

A song shoot was in progress at Audi Indian Showroom in Mumbai at location near Worli. We reached the scene of the shoot at 9.00 p.m. on a Sunday 18th Jan 2008. Mangesh, Manoj and me came to the shoot scene on our motorcycles. As we came close the location was full of lights and crowded. We parked our bikes at a distance so that no one bothers us or our respective bikes mistaking us for bystanders. The location was crowded with young college going girls and guys screaming, yelling and taking every effort for the actors on the set to give them a glance. As we reached there we were welcomed by Sameer (Pong) our dearest dude from Ruia Naka group. He is the representative of the production company under which the movie is been created. Then we saw Satish another good friend from Ruia Naka running around managing the location, he is from the production team who is supporting the needs at the shoot. Satish was the one who had managed to get the location for the shoot and was responsible for the security and all other things.

Now as I looked into the showroom, I saw the most awesome cars in the world been parked in there. The Audi A4 (Red), A7 (Black), A8 (Black), R8 (Black) and Q7 SUV (Black) were parked in the showroom premises. The cars had a memorizing effect on the crew members. Then there were the Movie Actors, choreographers, Director, Line Producer, Assistants and Production crew around there. The crowd only came in for the only one person…. And that was John Abraham (model actor). Then there were other people Genelia (lead actress in the movie), David Dhawan (Director), and Bosco (Choreographer).

As the showroom is next to the road, every car with curiosity slowed down and people in them were baffled, amazed and later excited to see John in the showroom. Now you know why the young girls were queued up screaming on the lane across the showroom and waving. I later heard that a doctor was required as Mr. Abraham was reported sick and was exhausted due to exertion that day. He was the ambassador was for the Mumbai Marathon which happened the same morning. Satish was calling up places to get a General Physician for John…. He (Satish) was very concerned about the degree of the doctor asking only physicians with MBBS were required. Poor fellow finally got a doctor to come for the whole shift, who arrived with his daughter and son-in-law at the location. Now that was funny, a general physician dad accompanied by an Eye Specialist daughter along with a Neuro Surgeon Son-in-law, Satish surprised with in the chaos on the set, who is who and is here for what? Then there were Cops who were leading the security of the premises doing crowd and traffic control on the street.
A surprise visit of Sohail Khan (Actor) was there in an Audi Q7 on the road. Who entered the showroom and met someone and left the scene within half an hour. Now I move on to a special character present on the set, a girl totally crazy about John, who was reported to have been at the scene from the beginning of the shoot. A young girl in her teenage wearing a blue and white strip T-shirt and denim jeans with a black handbag was seen moving around the location taking every opportunity to have a good look at Mr. Abraham. Before I arrived at the location the girl was reported to Scream, Cry and then faint after seeing the actor at the location.
I got an opportunity to enter the Showroom and take a nice close look at the cars which were my curiosity when I reached the spot. When Sameer introduced me in to the Security guard he stated that he thought me to be someone from Media who was out there for some interview. They were ready to pick me up and throw me off the location if had been approaching any of the actors or the director. When asked why they thought of me that way, they said it was my attire. Now I am confused with my own attire. I was wearing a grey t-shirt, a sleeveless jacket and a camel green cargo pant with a matching camel green foot wear and a backpack. Till date I have been thought of by people at the first look as a guy going for trek, a Terrorist (this was commented by a 3 star Police Inspector at a Naka bandi Marine Drive on 31st December) matching the attire of the 26/11 attackers in Mumbai, an aspiring contestant from MTV Roadies and now some Reporter from Media. Well I am confused with these comments now. Next time I am going get dressed formally. Let’s see what they got to say at my dressing then.

Showroom was clean and every car was something for admiration. There I met 2 people who were covering the making of the film on a still photography and handy cam, who were curious about the cars just like me. We had a small chat about the Car been used in the Transporter movies in Hollywood and were used to its full capacity. We spoke on the Audi R8 coupe which was out there, the car is speed demon with a Top speed 301 km/hr on a V8 Engine (awesome). Then there was the Audi A7 next to it, the genuinely luxurious sedan of the market.

Finally came the dinner time for the crew members, Lights got dimmed and crowd got thin. All of the sudden Mr. Abraham decided to come out of the showroom to wave hands at the crowd. Which resulted in a chaos which people rushing towards the actor to get autographs, photographs etc… in short a piece of him. Now the teenage girl I described above saw it as her last opportunity and rushed into the crowd to meet the actor, who was rushed into the showroom due to the chaos, Mr. Abraham showed the courtesy to his beloved greatest fan of the day to give her the autograph, take a photograph and give a hug to the girl who stood some 4 inches below his shoulders. Girl left the actor in total excitement and was not seen for some minutes.

During the dinner cops were showing full on attitude over the food and eating stuff. Satish in charge of taking care of the cops present was cursing and swearing the backgrounds with their attitudes. But one cannot neglect them when the work is at stake. Sameer and Mangesh had to leave for another party to attend of close friend who had movie music release last week.
Now the mates on the sets and I thought this should calm down the girl as her greatest wish for the day was granted finally. But to our amusement the girl was still lurking around the premises for more. A question came to my mind, what more is she waiting for, she almost had the best of the day from all the girls who had gathered or waited for the actor. The internal security of the crew was amazed to see the girl still around the location when it was half past midnight. The head of the security was baffled by the girl’s dedication towards the movie star. He asked me what with her, I suggested lets go and have a small talk with the girl, she may leave after that.
So security head and I approached the girl to question her. Where is she from? She replied just few buildings ahead from the showroom. Are her parents knew her whereabouts? She replied yes. Now as it was quite late we asked her has she eaten anything, she replied, she will later. Finally are you Ok? I asked her, she smiled back and said yes. Now during this conversation, she did not keep her eyes on us at all but only to answer our queries. I told her that she had the best of it today and the shoot will finish shortly, please go home and rest now. When I said about resting, that was due my own legs which were having a hard time standing around the location. She said she is fine and looked beyond us at the location. We left the kid alone and came back to scene. When the shot area was been setup we saw the girl leaving the location towards her home. Finally I said to the guy next to me she has left. The last scene of the day was to be shot outside the showroom on the footpath. Now the trouble was if the actors stayed for long outside the showroom, it would be chaos again. But things were under control. Last scene was John and genelia come on a cycle to the showroom as per the story and see the Security guard sleeping at the gate. There were 2 takes for the same and it was pack up! Shoot location was getting cleared quickly with people hurrying up to leave for home. Cops were then busy getting Chai-pani for the services rendered for the shoot.
Next shoot was scheduled on Monday morning, but due to the lead actor exhausted it was cancelled, with next shoot scheduled on Tuesday. About me being there was just for to watch the shoot and enjoy the shoot, I have never been more excited about the actors and actresses on the set but more about the things happening on the set, how a frame is set and how lights are arranged to get the perfect ambience for the scene. This one the film shoots I have attended and seen in Mumbai. The work done out there is hard and needs a lot of patience and guts to through the day. I can only dream to be in this line of work, where excitement and struggle go together in work. I’ll try and manage to be there for more spoils of my journeys to share with you. Let’s see if I could.