The Recce

I wanted the film to be in a zone where Indian films had not experimented before. To make a film that happens in realtime. Atleast a part of it. I had been to Goa earlier in 2006. At that time, i had visited many interesting lanes in Panjim and realised that it was a city of character. A character that very few Indian cities have. Most of the architecture in other cities has been screwed by pseudo-modern designs that try to ape the west and then call itself modern. The architecture here was beautiful. The churches magnificent. So the backdrop of the film had subconciously become Panjim, Goa. A place where the couple walk and talk. The city would be the testimony to their conversations, their insecurities, their secrets. Their love....

Since 2006, nothing much has changed, but Goa has seen many shootings happen. But none of them have ever captured Goa the way I saw it. It was always trance parties, drugs, bikini clad firangs... Lets dig deeper.

Two scooters and 4 people. Udit (Producer), Himanshu (Exec. producer), Girish (DoP) and I went around the city, the little lanes and kept clicking. There were beautiful undiscovered (or rather ignored) locations waiting for us. One of the locations we wanted to shoot was The Bom de Basilica or St. Francis Cathedral. But both came under the Archeological Survey of India. When we went to ask for permission, they told us that the two churches had a problem for shoot. Even if the ASI agreed, we needed the Bishop to give a go ahead, and if the Bishop gave an ok, the ASI wouldnt. The official there, graciously gave us another option, the St. Cajetan Church which was just behind the St. Francis Cathedral.

St. Cajetan was a revelation in itself. It is the only Church in the whole world which doesnt have a cross on top of it. Apparently many many years ago, there used to be a Mahadev Temple there. The invaders tore it down and built the church, but no matter what the cross doesnt stay on top of it. The church is designed in the design of the Vatican, however, much much smaller. For those who would be visiting Cajetan, you could see the well that is right below the dome that has a wooden cover.

There is also an entry to the Adilshah palace within the compound of St. Cajetan. Such history this place boasts of! This church got me some more meat for my script!

It was time to do the final touches on the script based on the locations that we finalised!

The Pitch

Girish apparently was doing a Gujrati film with a new producer and a new director. Apparently, the film was being shelved. Girish sensing an opportunity, pitched the concept of the Perfect Girl, that can be done well within the Gujrati film budget. Moreover, a Hindi film was much more prestigious than a Gujrati film, in terms of revenue and marketability.

So on April 12, 2013, i went for my second pitch for The Perfect Girl. Here is where I met Udit Pathak, a young producer all of 23 years and Himanshu Thakur, a veteran in the television industry. The pitch happened and both of them liked the concept and we immediately went about talking of getting things in black and white, and the expected budget. On April 13th we finalised the deal and on the 16th we were on our way to Panjim for a recce of our first schedule.

I wondered how things started moving fast when the time came. I spent around 3 years pitching The Blunder Years to many in the industry, but everyone rejected it. It pained very much when Ashish Patil of Y-Films rejected the script. I had even pitched him the concept of The Perect Girl. He said - Have you seen _________? Well... no.. I said.  Its in the same league, he replied. Fair enough. Heartbroken, I had gone back home.

And now someone believed in the project. Ahh! What a feeling. Though there was not a single penny to be earned i was kicked up about it. How could i take money from an already low budget film? was what i thought. I settled on a percentage of profit. (Who knows when it will release and if it will release and if it will make profits)

My take on films:
In the Indian Film Industry, with most (not all) of the producers i met, there was one thing common. No body fucking wanted to know the story. They wanted to know who is starring in the film, and who is doing the music. Not one fricking person asked me - What is the Story?
The meeting related to the film will end in 28 seconds and then came advises.

"Get a star for your film and we shall make it."

"So how do you get to a star?" I would ask. Pat came the repl.

"Call them up, give them a reading, and keep a signing amount ready. The minute they say yes, give them the cheque and get us a letter of intent. We are on!"

"And what would be the signing amount"

"Anything from 5 lakhs to 50!"

"Well.. thats the budget of my film!" I would say!

"WHAT? You must be joking!"

After such conversations I would think - Am I living in a sane world? Does the economics work? Does it make sense?

I was lost.

The beginning - The Perfect Girl

It had been quite a while that Girish and I have been talking about making a feature film. Our mantra was to be low budget, make a good film, a sensible film.. and then go out into the industry and find takers. So, I decided to look in to my potli of stories I had written earlier. As I browsed through the folders on my laptop, I happened to see  a file named 'The Perfect Girl'.

The Perfect Girl was a script I had written in 2006, inspired by a short story by Haruki Murakami called 'One April morning I saw the 100% perfect Girl'. It talks of a boy meeting a girl and both feeling that they were in love and were perfect for each other. The idea of falling in love in an instant was something that I couldnt relate to, but then there was a saying that I was reminded - that our life is a collective memories of instances that have given us the purest joys in a few seconds. I wondered, what if a boy meets a girl and they happen to talk, just for an hour and it seems like they knew each other for years, that all their moments of life were squeezed in that one hour they were with each other? This thought was in the year 2006.

It was 2012 now. I had experienced love and heartbreak. In September 2009, I got married and then fell in love.This time,  I realised love was nothing like that I had imagined. Love was to have conversations, unending conversations, about laughing, crying, fighting... in short I had a new perspective of life, of love. So, it was this experience that I wanted to put into the film.. of having conversations, interesting conversations that builds up feelings in the boy and the girl and bring them together. Now to put a uniqueness to the conversation, what if the film or the part of the film happens in realtime? One hour of screen conversation is one hour of real life?

I told Girish, that we should attempt this film first. It just needed two people and some small roles which we could ask friends to be a part of and pull it off in 5 lakhs.

I then went down to writing it. It took 3 months of writing the script. As the script developed, both of us began to feel within ourselves - Why cant this be a mainstream film? It has its doses of drama, romance, humour... why wouldnt it fit within the existing scheme of things in mainstream bollywood. Why not take it to the next level?

I was meanwhile writing for another film. The film was to go on floors but it was taking a bit too long. Life in the film industry is difficult. Either you are a rockstar or nothing. While the media was talking about multicrore deals, money was coming to us in trickle. My bank account was running dry. I was wondering where my journey in this film industry is heading

And then the phone rang...