This is the story of scene 6 of our film - Sabse Badi Daulat. It's a scene showing the hero and heroine on a 'date' i.e. they are sitting in a field and having a conversation. I wanted this to be a kind of romantic shot so as to show that despite her claims to the contrary, the girl actually does love the guy. I decided to do this by showing the guy lying under a tree with his head on the heroine's lap. So far, I am talking about the writing stage of things.
When we were actually on location and got around to shooting this scene, I wanted to find the perfect spot for my talent to sit. It didn't prove to be so easy. I had my local advisers at my elbow and they were willing to show me the whole village and beyond until I could find my perfect spot. And we did almost that.
Starting from home base, I walked with them looking at literally every tree that we came across to see if it would do.
Have I told you that I have a bit of Yash Chopra syndrome? I don't have any delusions of grandeur that I would eventually replace the great dream merchant and fill the void left by him in the Indian film industry, but still I am inspired by him. In order to imitate his amazingly successful style, I wanted to have the yellow "mustard" flowers on the screen for this scene (and in any other outdoor scene!).
Easier said than done! If there was a tree it was possible to sit under, there was no field around it, if there was a field and also the tree in it, there was no space to sit under it. And rarely, when both were there, there were no yellow flowers in the background.
So here I was sniffing around each field to see if I could shoot there, my local consultants following on my heels, and rest of the crew and cast following a space behind me hoping to see me throw my hands in the air and shout "Eureka!" before they dropped from exhaustion!
Ultimately we came to a spot where the tree was present, it was possible to sit under it, and there were some yellow flowers a short distance from there. I decided that we would use low angles to include that mustard field in the shot as backdrop.
But when my local advisers found out what I wanted they said, "We can pluck some of those yellow flower plants and plant them here behind the tree if you want?"
I was like "Really?"
Turned out that they were not joking! On my request, that's exactly what they did! They plucked some of those flower plants by the roots, used a stick to drill holes in the ground around the tree and planted those uprooted plants.
I had my yellow flowers!
And that's where we shot scene 6. The supreme irony of it was that the spot that I finally chose for the shot was less than a stone's throw from home base! In my hunt for the yellow flowers, I had gone all around in a huge circle!
Directors, huh?
When we were actually on location and got around to shooting this scene, I wanted to find the perfect spot for my talent to sit. It didn't prove to be so easy. I had my local advisers at my elbow and they were willing to show me the whole village and beyond until I could find my perfect spot. And we did almost that.
Starting from home base, I walked with them looking at literally every tree that we came across to see if it would do.
Have I told you that I have a bit of Yash Chopra syndrome? I don't have any delusions of grandeur that I would eventually replace the great dream merchant and fill the void left by him in the Indian film industry, but still I am inspired by him. In order to imitate his amazingly successful style, I wanted to have the yellow "mustard" flowers on the screen for this scene (and in any other outdoor scene!).
Easier said than done! If there was a tree it was possible to sit under, there was no field around it, if there was a field and also the tree in it, there was no space to sit under it. And rarely, when both were there, there were no yellow flowers in the background.
So here I was sniffing around each field to see if I could shoot there, my local consultants following on my heels, and rest of the crew and cast following a space behind me hoping to see me throw my hands in the air and shout "Eureka!" before they dropped from exhaustion!
Ultimately we came to a spot where the tree was present, it was possible to sit under it, and there were some yellow flowers a short distance from there. I decided that we would use low angles to include that mustard field in the shot as backdrop.
But when my local advisers found out what I wanted they said, "We can pluck some of those yellow flower plants and plant them here behind the tree if you want?"
I was like "Really?"
Turned out that they were not joking! On my request, that's exactly what they did! They plucked some of those flower plants by the roots, used a stick to drill holes in the ground around the tree and planted those uprooted plants.
I had my yellow flowers!
And that's where we shot scene 6. The supreme irony of it was that the spot that I finally chose for the shot was less than a stone's throw from home base! In my hunt for the yellow flowers, I had gone all around in a huge circle!
Directors, huh?
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