08/29/08 - Shoot Day 2: Garage Scenes
Happily, they needed to shoot Kristen’s acting scenes with her “family” in the morning so our call time wasn’t until noon. It was nice to get to sleep in a little bit. The car was scheduled to pick us up from the flat at 10:30AM so I was up at 8:30AM making sure I was completely ready and mothering everyone else to get them up too. Elena got up as early as me since she needed to go out and run some errands in the morning. At 10:30, Elena was still not back, but I shooed everyone out of the apartment to head out anyways. We all waited outside at the curb asking the most frequent question of the trip: Where’s Elena? At 11:00AM, we decided that we needed to get going or we would be late so Lourd, being the incredible gentleman that he is, volunteered to stay and wait for Elena and to catch a rickshaw with her once she got back. We must have just missed her as we exited the complex and, thankfully, she still made it to the set by noon.
Today we shot all the garage scenes and I got to wear the costume with “the orange boob”, aka "unaboob." (The picture should be explanation enough…) It was quite the running joke all day! I had so much fun today shooting the video, but have decided that I just may not be cut out for the camera. In general, I get incredibly nervous every time we do a show, but at least the show only lasts a few minutes and then it’s over. I spent the last two days of the shoot incredibly sick with nervousness! Every time Pradipto yelled, “Stand by”, I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest. Hopefully, it doesn’t come through on camera! I would hate to ruin Giju’s fantastic video!
In general, today was much more relaxed than the first day. We didn’t have the huge cast of extras and not nearly as many group shots. Most of the shots today involved just Kristen and Giju. Your jaws are going to drop when you see the finished product. They both look so AMAZING!! Because we weren’t in a ton of shots, I actually got the time to just hang out and get to know the crew a little better. I had a really nice conversation with Biswajeet and Dipali. The close crew of Pradipto, Dipali, Biswajeet, and Dheeman are so incredible! They have such a wide variety of talents and together, they form this unbelievable synergy. It was energizing just being around them. If I ever got the opportunity to work with any of them again, I would jump on it in a heartbeat! I feel so fortunate to have been a part of such a positive experience.
The shoot wrapped earlier than I had expected and we were done around 7:30PM. We all headed back to the flat, changed, and headed out for some after-partying. We ended up at this very sheek and hip club, Poison. It really reminded me of the Las Vegas club scene. The funniest part came when we tried to enter and they wouldn’t let Giju in because he had sandals on (of course they were super “stylish” sandals, but boys are not allowed to come in with open-toed shoes never-the-less). After a little negotiation with the bouncer, Gautam graciously donated his black socks to Giju and he just got to dance the night away with dress shoes and no socks. What a trooper! This was the first night in a club without salsa. We danced for hours to house and Bollywood. It was so much fun to see all the locals tear it up. In some ways, it’s a little like line dancing where everyone kind of knows the sequences of moves that go with certain songs. If I lived in India, I think I’d get hooked!
After dancing, I got to go out to eat with Giju, Kristen, and Dipali. It was a nice chance to chat a little and hang out with Dipali before leaving. She really is an amazing person. She really took care of all of us on set making sure we all got cold medication, B vitamins, and lots of tender loving care. I will really miss her company when we leave.
After eating, we went back to the flat arriving around 2:00AM. We were catching a 6:00AM flight to Kerala (Cochin) so we had to leave at 3:30AM. That gave us a solid 1.5 hours to pack, shower, and be ready to go. Sleep has been pretty optional this entire trip! It was really hard to say good-bye and I found myself fighting back a whole host of tears. I really feel like I’ve made some forever friends and certainly hope to make it back to India again to visit them. I hope they know there is always an open invitation for them to come stay with me in California! Lourd, Bindu, Richard, and Madan took such great care of me during my stay in India. I’ll be forever grateful!
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