Beautiful Bollywood

After hanging out in Goa for a week I ended up in Bombay to meet up with my roommates Meghan and Kirsten for what would be our final dinner together. Meghan was heading back to America in the early morning hours of March 11th and Kirsten and I wanted to be there to say goodbye. It is hard to say goodbye to someone who, for nine months, was your co-worker, roommate, friend, and little sister. Most of my tears were shed before I even got to the restaurant so I was able to keep it mostly together. Still, as Kirsten and I drove off in a cab and watched Meg disappear into the chaotic mess at the airport, we were again struck with sadness and we clung to each other and cried.

While entering our hostel a few days later a man asked if we would like to go to Bollywood…Kirsten and I looked at each other and immediately said “Sure!” I had been waiting for this very instance for a long time! Bollywood is India’s version of Hollywood and it turns out more movies than Hollywood. Bollywood movies can be very fun with lots of singing and dancing, and you rarely ever see kissing. They usually run about 3 hours and anytime a movie is shown in the theaters here there is an intermission.

The recruiter promised transportation, three meals a day, hair, makeup, costumes and a mere 500 rupees. We did have our misgivings though, as we had heard of scams involving just these kinds of promises. We decided that we would see what kind of people showed up the next day and would go from there. The next morning when we headed down to the lobby to meet the recruiter my worries were put to rest….there were several very large men and people from all different backgrounds and decades. For some reason this made me feel better…I would have been very nervous if it was all young women. We boarded the bus with everyone and we were off to Bollywood!

About an hour later we showed up at a studio. We were taken into a huge room full of makeup mirrors, costumes, and production assistants running around screaming at each other on headsets. They had us all sit in chairs while the director walked up and down, scrutinizing us. She pointed at Kirsten and another girl. “You, and you! Come with me,” she said. They were to become the waitresses; while in the meantime, I was taken to the costumer and given a short black dress and heels. After I was dressed I went to accessories where they gave me jewelry and was then sent to hair and makeup. After the transformation from rural teacher to glam clubber was finished I was allowed to eat some breakfast before I was rushed to the set.

As I walked onto the set my mouth dropped. It was an incredibly beautiful nightclub, apparently set in Istanbul. I was immediately paired with a man from Iran, given a fake martini and was directed to walk with my “date” in front of the camera while laughing and talking. We did this simple scene about 5 times before the director was happy. Then, I was placed at the bar talking with a man from Holland while the real bartenders showed off their skills for the camera. Another scene at the bar had me sitting right next to one of the main characters while he did his dialogue. During dialogue shooting we were not allowed to make any noise, but we had to appear as if we were having real conversations while dancing and having fun. This was sometimes a challenge, especially when there was no music to dance to. When the cameras rolled all the air conditioners and fans had to be turned off and the set soon became incredibly hot, especially with all the lights shining on us.

Finally, the moment I had been waiting for all day; Abhishek Bachchan entered the set and I couldn’t take my eyes off him. He is a very famous (and handsome) actor in India; he is married to Aishwarya Rai (purported to be the most beautiful woman in the world) and his father is the most famous actor in India. In several scenes I was standing within feet of him. We had just watched him in a movie called Paa and it was weird to now be standing so close to him.

One thing I really enjoyed about the day was meeting and talking with all the other extras. I talked with people from Australia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, America, Spain, England, etc. It was a really interesting and very exhausting day. After nine months in flip flops, my feet and my back were protesting the heels. At 9pm, 12 hours after we started, we were released. We changed back into our street clothes and once again became hippies, teachers, and tourists. Kirsten and I were asked to come back for the next five days with paid accommodation and an increase in pay, but we already had confirmed tickets back to Gujarat, so sadly, we had to decline. Despite shooting for 12 hours, probably only 5-7 minutes will actually be seen in the movie. Look out for Crooked (working title) in the future and you will be able to see Kirsten and I, or at least my right arm and the back of my head ;)