In Too Deep

I know it's been ages since I've blogged. That's 'cos I've been all over the place - mentally and physically.

Sept 12 to 18 - Shot for a film in Goa. It was fun - concrete buildings and polluted fumes of Bombay were replaced by beautiful beaches and rain-soaked fresh air.

On my flight to Goa I get upgraded to first class - advantages of travelling with a frequent-flyer - the producer. I eat and drink everything that comes my way! And interestingly I bump into a friend who I used to go to college with in Delhi many years ago - at the airport. She remembers my name but I can't remember hers (shit!). But I do remember that she'd gone off to Bangkok to work or something and I do remember that she had a name that someone else had too - Bharti? Nah! I'm too embarrassed to ask her name so I've saved her number as friend from college at airport!

Goa - here I am! The director of the film says I'm dressed like an NGC - docu filmmaker. How appropriate I feel - I mean we are filming a documentary - the film's loosely based on his life.

To give you an idea of what Goa's like in the off-season - the hotel our crew's staying at has no staff today because it's a Sunday and it's Visarjan day! How cool is that!

Day 1 of shoot in Goa -

I have a lovely breakfast at a table overlooking the beach - with Fort Aquada in front of me and waves crashing on rocks. Ah yes - before I forget there's Buddhist chanting in the background.

Shoot's at Britona - a boutique hotel - in a tiny bylane of Goa. The lane's so tiny that there's only one-way traffic. We get stuck in a traffic jam thanks to this. The sound effect is just rain, rain and more rain. The hotel's turned into an incredibly busy place with some 100 crew members running all over the place. But this doesn't stop a Goan guest watching his football right in the middle of all the cacophony.

We're shooting at the pool - the heroine's in the pool - splashing about - throwing water at the hero reading at the poolside. The heroine doesn't know we've pulled out a big fat frog from the pool just before she got in. I don't think she'd be too happy to know about this teeny little fact. I've shot the frog-removal operation on my camera - maybe one day I'll show it to her! Heh Heh Heh!

Shooting at The Taj Holiday Village is quite fun! The best part of the shoot is the long walk one needs to take to reach the loo. It's a lovely quiet walk on paths with sandy tiles - trees on either side - right near the beach.

I get along best with the Dressmen (the costume dept). These guys - Pradeep, Nitin and Javed - are good at their job and come along with a good sense of humour. Their idea of fun - after pack up they pick up drinks - head to their rooms - and collect a whole bunch of people to play cards with - then rip everyone off all their money - to buy booze for the next day's round of gambling! And of course they're impecably turned out - once they've completed ironing the actors' costumes and if their clothes have a hint of a wrinkle then you'll find them ironing their own clothes!

Makeup and Hair stylists think they're stars! Except maybe one of two here and there. The rest think the entire film is happening thanks to them. I seem to get along with only the gay makeup artists. Luckily on this shoot the makeup artist is gay with a decent sense of humour (we sit around ogling men) He's called Tulsi and everyone calls him Miss Tulsi - which he has no problem with. The hair stylist is a witch from hell! Everyone runs away from her!

Ah the choreographer's assistant - Jayesh. Now he's a sweetheart! And extremely sincere about his work - too sincere me thinks sometimes! His takiya kalaam is 'immediately one more!' which he says after every take and if we have to go for a retake. All over Goa one can hear Jayesh shouting 'immediately one more' on his mike. I think he says this to his girlfriend too - 'immediately one more!' - when he's making out with her!!

Pack up from Goa - I don't wanna leave! The grind starts again tomorrow. In the morning I took a short trip to the Mapsa market about 20 mins from Calangute. Quite a happening place. It's a dirtyish market (I'm saying dirtyish because it's not very dirty and it's only messy because it's been raining and everything's wet or soggy and the paths are littered with all kinds of goods). And the market has all kinds of stuff - fruit, nuts, fish, flowers, footwear, liquor, lottery - the winner of the Ganpati Festival lottery draw is being announced and there's a huge crowd around. It's a market with life!

Goa airport's crowded as hell. Its' a sunday and everyone's getting out of here I think. My Goan friend Shiva's come to drop me to the airport. We help our heroine get her tshitzu on board her flight. All the gujju kids are driving me insane at the airport! They should be banned from travelling with other human beings!

But I'm gonna miss Goa - I'll miss the drives, I'll miss chatting with the Goan drivers, I'll miss bumping into long-lost friends, I'll miss the prawns and breezers at Mambos, I'll miss the midnight walks on the beach, I'll miss the wakeup call by the spot boy at 5.45am (ok I won't miss being woken up so early but I'll miss the early morning drives to the location), I'll miss the Thai food at Banyan Tree, I'll miss the quick swim I managed to have between shoots, and I'll miss that big fat ship that looks menacing in the day and eeriely haunted at night.

I've been back in Bombay for almost 4 weeks now. And it's been a mad rush since. I think my work is interfering with my life. Big time.