Shootingstars

RAJNI ANAND LUTHRA gets a peek in during the Sydney shoot of Bollywood film Stepmom

We’ve seen her play the sweet natured girl-next-door, good-hearted middle-class conventional achchi ladki. But today, Kajol is being as haughty as ever.

“I’m the mother of this child, not you!” she yells at …. her ex-husband’s new girlfriend, we presume, since we are on the sets of the Hindi remake of Hollywood’s Stepmom.

She has excellent diction, perfect intonation, and clear and crisp expressions.

Shot is okayed almost instantly. Obviously, this is Kajol we’re talking about here. She walks off to have a sit, but still seems in character.

Er … and remains in character the whole day.

Her demeanour is very much ‘I don’t think I even want to look at you mere mortals –can you please stay out of my way’.

Haughty. Didn’t expect the diva act from this woman.

In fact, one was quite prepared to see the diva act from the other female lead, Kareena. Famous family name, the ‘sizezero’ figure (whatever that means), great career positioning, hunk of a boyfriend, and that ‘living life on my terms’ attitude – perfect diva ingredients. But here she is, dressed simply but smartly, just a touch of make-up, happily posing for photographs, chatting away with colleagues, flitting around chirpily… And when the staff call her “madam” you think it is so inappropriate, she looks no more than 20.

But then again, she’s in character too. She plays a “normal metro-centric working girl” (her own words), and reportedly costumes man Manish Malhotra had to work hard to ‘tone down’ her glamorous looks for this film.

Arjun Rampal is still sporting facial hair (a remnant of his Om Shanti Om days, maybe – some of the kids on set refer to him as ‘Mukesh’). He looks tired. It’s the heat, you think – or maybe he’s in character too – sick of the two spirited women he has to deal with on a daily basis, we presume… oh, the trials and tribulations of blended families!

Noumi, the child actor, is only nine, but he feels special already. Everyone dotes on him. ***

ON SET, surprisingly, it’s all cool-ascucumbers. The director Siddharth Malhotra is in control. Things seem to be moving along quite peacefully. The Australian lineproducer Anupam Sharma of Temple Films is keeping a cool eye on everything and everyone – the top brass, the unit hands, the staff – like a general coordinating a huge event. His assistants run around issuing instructions into walkie-talkies. Together they’ve seemed to have arranged for everything that could be needed.

Mealtimes are hearty (Indian as well as non-Indian food to cater to staff both from India and from here), there’s sunscreens or the kids, thanda pani coming on regularly as also chai, coffee, fresh cut fruits … and giant

Director Siddharth Malhotra, in the check shirt in the foreground, has everything under control (To identify the stars in the background, check out the umbrellas) umbrellas for the stars.

(We couldn’t resist a chuckle at the umbrellas. As the stars walked around, a dedicated umbrella-wallah walked behind them, at a respectful distance, as if they were royalty. Come on guys, can’t you carry your own umbrellas? And come to think of it, yes it’s hot, but we haven’t felt the need for umbrellas, to walk a few dozen steps at a time…!)

Anyway, overall yes, it all looked pretty orderly – where’s the so-called chaos of Bollywood? Oh but this is Karan Johar, you know, Dharma Productions… people around say in hushed tones.

Karan Johar, royalty. Yes, there’s no shortage of royalty in Bollywood.

But the sheer scale of it all is staggering. Work starts and finishes in time. There are no crises – everything’s going exactly to script. It’s all good. ***

NO DOUBT Anupam had his work cut out for him. Rumours are that producer Karan Johar had made his mind up about Australia, after looking closely at the US as a location. Then he backtracked – in solidarity with the Indian students here who were being treated shamefully. Wonder what changed his mind.

Johar bought the rights of the Hollywood film Stepmom (Julia Roberts-Susan Sarandon-Ed Pollack) a few years ago and was reportedly waiting for Kajol. It is as yet untitled, but everyone has been referring to it as ‘Stepmom’.

John Abraham was approached first, but he declined, reportedly because he felt he wouldn’t have much to do in it, plus there were two bigwigs in it already.

Kareena, who claims she likes to “experiment” with her roles, apparently took on acting lessons with director Siddharth Malhotra for this role. The catty press in India had suggested this was because she wanted to upstage the other (more talented?) female lead, but perhaps she wanted to do justice to the Julia Roberts role, and perhaps also because typically, she has no hang-ups about up-skilling from time to time, like she did for her role in Omkara ***

THE DAY HAD begun early. Reporting time was 6.30am for this shoot at Sydney Uni. Kitchen had served up a sumptuous breakfast.

“This is a good place,” Noumi had announced, showing off unusual powers of observation. “The stars sit together with everyone else to eat”.

The “stars” were taken aback somewhat. Someone explain the concept of egalitarianism to a middle-class child from Mumbai.

IN BETWEEN TAKES, Kareena’s best friend is the mobile phone. Her new film Kurbaan is not yet three days old, and she must be keen to learn of reactions. A junior unit hand shows her a giant picture of her in this very newspaper – she takes it eagerly and reads it through, and asks why Kurbaan is not reviewed in it. (You can read it this issue Kareena, but you know by now that it is not the hit you were so sure it would be). She goes back to texting. It’s dead of night in India, Kareena – who are you calling? By the way, nice to see you’ve learnt to text discreetly, after that major boo-boo only days ago when a cameraman caught you having an SMS tiff with your man Saif…

THERE SEEMS to be great camaraderie on the sets. The three leads sit around and talk, and applaud each other’s takes. The buzz is they are all going out tonight to see Kurbaan at a local Sydney theatre.

***

IN BETWEEN TAKES, Kajol talks constantly, and with an air of authority about everything.

“The restaurants in Sydney blah blah blah…”

“Sean’s Panorama blah blah blah …”

“Tetsuya’s blah blah blah …”

“Juiciest steak I’ve ever eaten, blah blah blah …”

“Roast potatoes blah blah blah …”

“Borders book store blah blah blah…”

***

IN BETWEEN TAKES, Arjun Rampal makes genial chatter. Such as about his new baby, the exclusive ‘lounge bar/ night club LAP, at Chanakyapuri in New Delhi. “I’m keen to keep it exclusive, you know … open it to everyone and it looses its flavour. Keep it lean and people are keen”. The current challenge for entrepreneur Arjun, apparently, is who to get as the big DJ for New Year’s

Eve this year. “To get the big ones you have to make sure you time it right; see, these DJs are known to say yes and then if a bigger offer comes along later, they cancel out on you…”

***

MEANWHILE, Anupam’s staff remind everyone that they can’t take photographs of the stars. “Yes I know it’s Kajol, but you know … Dharma Productions, Karan Johar….”

***

THE paani wallahs and chai wallahs are doing a sterling job on a hot day like today. They are probably providing a higher level of service than some of the hangers-on whose contribution seems limited at best. Perhaps Karan Johar needs to look hard at the roles of these randoms who claim executive titles but seem totally superfluous.

***

THE CHILD star announces he’s bored. “There’s no one to play with”. His mum suggests he should play with some of the other kids – the ‘extras’. He goes readily, only to be reprimanded loudly by someone to ‘stop distracting the kids’. He goes away downcast. Someone else shouts out, “Let the poor kid play”. But he’s lost interest.

***

MICKEY CONTRACTOR, Bollywood’s most wanted make-up man, is on hand as well. He’s make-up royalty. His magic makeup has done wonders for some of our leading actresses. Word around the set is, he flies business class (only make-up artist in India to do so), charges an exorbitant fee, and of course, only does one face at a time. For this movie, it is Kajol’s lucky face.

***

THE CHILDREN in the ‘extra’ roles complain repeatedly. It’s a school scene, and they are required to be the background figures walking around carrying schoolbags.

“It’s so hot in the jacket…”

“My head hurts … the hair lady did my hair so tightly”.

“Yeah mine too, and she was so rough”.

“How come Kareena gets to touch up her make-up so often – she’s just standing under the shade doing nothing, and we’re walking up and down this path in the sun …”

“When are we going home?”

***

OUTSIDE, THE PARENTS of the ‘extra’ kids, all mainstream Aussies, wait around patiently. One dad has driven in from Penrith: to make the 6.30am reporting time, he must have woken his kid up at an unearthly hour. He wants to know which one of the actors is Arjun Rampal. His Indian doctor has asked him to try and get an autograph. When he finally makes contact, Arjun obliges readily. What a champion.

***

THERE ARE PLENTY of runners around doing odd jobs. One poor thing has just got

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She’s got what she was sent out for. One of the leading ladies has asked for cherries, strawberries, cheese, crackers and brown bread. There was some confusion about what type of cheese: no one had a clue as to whether it was cheddar, brie, camembert or any other exotic variety … but hey, this star is in Australia, land of milk and honey, so cheese has to be on the menu. “Just go get any cheese, yaar!”

Last week it was Caesar’s Salad for both ladies – with dressing on the side, please.

***

KAREENA has finished for the morning. She kicks off her sandals and asks for her chappals. The word travels down the foodchain.

“Madam ki chappal dena…”

“Madam ki chappal!”

“Madam ki chappal …”.

***

THE dal at lunch is simply delicious. It is a simple yellow dal – nothing fancy. Apparently, all of last week the caterer sent in kaali dal, and everyone was sick of it. There’s plenty of food today – all excellent.

Kajol eats by herself: thanks Noumi, for that smart-aleck comment this morning…

Kareena has asked to go to an Italian place for lunch - something “rustic”, not the bazaar type, not just limited to pizzas but good pasta.

Easy one that came to mind was Belmondo at the Rocks, with views to the Bridge and the Opera House “Oh no, you can’t keep her waiting,” the staffer says into the phone. “She’s the Julia Roberts of India. We have to have a confirmed booking”.

Perhaps Kareena had the herb and garlic gnocchi with zucchini, mushroom and roast capsicum, baby spinach and parmesan shavings. Bit of a change from the dals.

Arjun shares a table with others at lunch. He’s chatty again, talking intelligently about the production. No, the heat doesn’t bother him because the days are longer and they’ve been able to pack more work in. This means they can wind up in four weeks rather than five, saving in costs; with the AUD getting more expensive from the time they decided to shoot here, all these savings help.

At the desserts counter, there is a special dabba of Indian mithai. Apparently the company has reached a milestone in its volume of filming, and traditions demand that sweets be distributed at this point. (And also, the spot boy’s wife has just delivered a baby boy back home in India). Wonder what the main actors feel about this intake of these extra calories…

Two of the child extras are thrilled. They have just been served some ice cream by a gorgeous blonde lady ahead of them in the dessert queue. That’s Virginia Judge, the Minister for the Arts, Indophile and Bollywood freak, who has just arrived for the post-lunch filming session. She has a role in the movie.

***

DEBUTANT DIRECTOR Siddharth

Malhotra is pleasant, filled with obvious passion for his art. One of Bollywood’s new brand of directors, he has great pedigree –the legendary Premnath is his grandfather. He has been tweeting away about how great his stars are: Kajol’s brilliant, Kareena’s a dream to direct, both are electrifying together, Arjun is perfect in his role – anyone else would have been ‘over’cast.

He’s thrilled with what Sydney has to offer from the viewpoint of natural beauty. “It was blue skies when we wanted, and overcast conditions when we wanted. The sea was perfect, and the long winding roads of Sydney were great. I also loved the up and down of the roads - something which San Franciso also offers, but happy to get it all in Sydney. The choice of the set came down to either New York or Sydney but we finally decided to go for Sydney and I’m glad that we did. We’ve showed Sydney off - and have even used actual names like Mona Vale, Palm Beach etc”.

(Many home scenes were filmed on the northern beaches).

Siddharth laughs, “It’ll be nice to get some money back from the local government on this, they are going to get a huge promotion….”.

***

VIRGINIA JUDGE has a spring in her step as Anupam escorts her in. She shakes hands all around and tells everyone she’s very excited about her role as school principal. Apparently, she has to reprimand local students who have just called the Indian child “little brown shit”. Oh dear.

Her lines go something like “…there is no room for racism in Australia”. Funny, we’ve heard that one before somewhere…

Shabaash, you guys, very clever indeed.

Someone quipped that keeping the boys in line must be easy for a NSW minister, what with the unruly boys in Cabinet. Judge smiles wistfully.

She finishes make-up and rehearses her lines with Arjun.

The hair lady (the one who pulled the children’s hair too tight) is thrilled to bits afterwards. “Kya bhaag hai hamare, minister ke baal kiye (What good fortune, I’ve just done a minister’s hair)”.

***

AND TO ADD to all the stardust, Saif Ali

Khan flies in from Mumbai. As one half of Indian glitterati’s most-watched couple, he can’t bear to be apart from lady love Kareena. Or perhaps he’s just escaping the lukewarm reception to his latest film Kurbaan

Either way, as he makes an appearance on set, he looks pretty much like he’s in character as well (from his latest role): bandana, beard … terrorist?

He’s very interested in Kareena’s work. He sits beside the cameraman and the director, involved in every aspect of the shot: it’s almost as if he can say ‘Cut’ before the director can. But the director seems cool with it, and everything’s hunky dory.

Afterwards, he shakes hands readily with star-struck Indians who recognise him (admittedly, it’s a bit difficult today…).

Yes, he’s just as suave as he’s made out to be. And yes, just as crazy about Kareena, lucky girl.

Well, if art imitates life for Virginia Judge, hopefully it will do the same for Kareena as she prepares to play ‘Stepmom’ in real life to Saif’s kids.

With inputs from various sources