#bollywoodbuff

“Tu right nahi hai Naina, bas mujhse bahut alag hai”, when Bunny told you this I could feel that how unique and out of the world you were that even Bunny, who had travelled around the world, felt attracted to your ‘Life at Home’ ideology. He agreed to miss out on a fancy light show to attend a great and the best sunset he could ever lay eyes on. You made him feel the void he had been carrying around of not going home after his dad’s passing away and he opened to you about it in the late night way back to the hotel. 

I still remember the way you were in your academic year, the scholar, the ‘drowned into books’ student. I had been there once too, maybe not as much into the books you were but I know how it feels. I am still a student and I am still a thorough one when it comes to it, not because I am bookworm like you but I feel  happy to have achieved a milestone to finish a book from page one to last. 

You went on a trip by leaving a note to your mom and hoping they would not be angry from you. Well I would love to know what dreadful adventures you went through at home after you came back from the beautiful and a life changing one. I wouldn’t dare to do such a gutsy move all of a sudden. 

Now getting back to the train where the group played ‘Never have I Ever’ and let me tell you that I have been through what you went through, we aren’t the adventurous ones or have done things in life, even to the extent of not drinking a beer while playing the game. I know how it felt to be left out in situations, we are what we are and we are happy with it, right? After all, it is the concept of self that matters in the end. 

I am glad you grew out to be a best friend one could ask for, you fell in love but didn’t express because your path didn’t merge with him that time and he was very dedicated to his plans and so were you. And he came running to you the second time the situation presented itself. Isn’t that the happy ending we all look for? A trip and a guy changed your life. And you changed him at a wedding, you brought Kabir home. 

I hope you are living a great life with Bunny and may it stay forever.

Yours sincerely

Would you like to go to a place where there is a slim chance to meet a celebrity? I would. (#BollywoodBuff)

For my second day in Mumbai, I had planned to go to South Bombay, to visit Prince of Wales museum. While I was browsing, I happened to come across a website which provides a guided tour of the film city in Goregaon.

FYI, Film City is an integrated film studiocomplex, that serves as the venue of many Bollywood film, Television serials, short videos and for Advertisements shootings. This meant a chance to see a live shooting or perhaps meeting a star.(wallah!) I immediately booked a slot for 12 O’clock of this Mayanagri.

TICKETS and duration

Tickets can be either booked on BookMyShow or on the website mumbaifilmcitytours.com each costing ₹500. It was a 2 hour tour of the Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagri.

How to reach

For Film city, I took a slow train from Jogeshwari to Goregaon railway station. And this time, I made sure to board the 2nd class coach (pat on back). I de-boarded at Goregaon and took the exit from East,  took an auto from the railway station to Film city.

As I was chatting with the auto driver about the city, he told me that all the local auto drivers also take people for the tour of the film city at the cost lesser than what I paid on the website. However, I am not sure if all the drivers would be able to share the information of all the movies, sets, studios, shows and shooting done at different location as was shared by my tour guide.

Film city tour

I took a seat in the tour bus. They provide you a small packet of chips and a bottle of drinking water. Before moving into the film city campus, the tour company gets their official papers verified, personnel counted and documents signed by the police officials outside the entry gateThe tour guide shared the history of the campus before starting the tour and also requested the tourists to keep silent if they witness any shooting in process and to keep calm in presence of any famous star.

The guided tour started in an air conditioned bus and as the day progressed I thanked for it.

Film city has different studios of different production houses such as Filmistan, Mehboob Studio, UTV Motion Pictures, etc. Film city is actually like a college campus which is situated near Sanjay Gandhi National Park at Goregaon east. Apart from the 16 Air-conditioned studioswith well equipped exclusive spaces for indoor and outdoor shooting, it has several recording rooms, gardens, lakes, theatres, temples and grounds to facilitate the shootings of not only films but also TV Commercials and serials.

As we moved from location to location we were taken through different buildings of the film city and the guide kept informing us about the place used for a particular song, scene, and shoot of the movie or show. And truly, there was no place of the film city untouched of shooting. In the bus, there was also a TV playing a movie which showed the pre-movie and post-movie footage of location along with the actual scene of the movie. I was astonished at the fact that how a single location is used for different movies and portray a different location al-together and we never could have realized, they were the same locations. You’d be surprised to see the creation of art directors who changed a simple house into a lively home of Mrs. Hema Malini and Mr. Amitabh Bacchan in the movie Baghbaan. And the same location was shown as St. Mary School in the movie Singham.

One can easily see big posters of shows that were shot or were being shot outside the shooting place or studio. At first, I saw a setup of shooting at a forestry area down the road. The guide informed us that perhaps, it was the setup for a shooting of a popular crime investigation Indian television series (Crime Patrol/Savdhan India). But, areas wherein actual shooting was being carried out was off limits

Next, we went to see the Mandir (temple) of all the movies or shows. The temple was constructed of bricks and was vacant, or I’d rather say idol less (pun intended). Idols of gods/goddesses are kept according to the script demand and the scene they’d be shooting.

We got the chance of watching the live shooting of a scene of an Indian television series called Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlaata hai, where a simple open space was changed into a café by set designers and on the next place we saw the shooting of the same series where the place was designed like a fair of a hilly area and the protagonists were acting a scene with the performing dance artists. And right next to them, the other casts of the same show were performing an entirely different scene of a market. It is really beautiful to see how the set designers changed a simple vacant space into a realistic and lively place.

They also have a point which is used to shoot a jumping scene, a suicide point scene or a scene where director needs to show a thrilling scene of a person jumping from a height or a vehicle falling off in an abyss. (Fardeen khan falling scene in movie No entry, hut falling scene in the end of the movie Welcome)

Film city is a magical place where art directors are wizards can make anything with a move of their wand.

There is a small garden which has been turned into Nanital, Ooty, Shimla and can be turned into any hilly area as per the imagination of art director.

They also have a lake where, Shahrukh Siremptied the bottle of alcohol in the movie Devdas

I also saw the entry gate of the famous Gokuldham society  of a very popular and successful Indian show Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah. Since I visited this place in early March, most of the sets were designed for Holi Celebrations and scenes were being shot of the festival Holi.

We saw a standing kingdom set of a fictional king, without any working people inside the set. The guide told us that the set was made for a south Indian movie/show. Since, the audience did not appreciate the show much, the shooting was stopped. Though the sets are not real and are made of thermocol, fiberglass, plywood or Plaster of Paris , still was in loss of ₹10 Crore. And the fact was not surprising to me, as the set was made with so detailing, it must have taken a lot of time and hard work of immensely talented artist and also handful money of the producer's.

Generally the sets are made, and are then destroyed and put in the trash once the shooting is completed, as the authorities charge them for the duration they use the land. The longer the place is used, the higher the rent is. However this set was kept intact in the hope that someone would purchase the lease of the ready-made set from the producer of the set for the shooting and the producer would be out of loss. Honestly, the set was daring bold.

We took a short meal break at the canteen in the Film city campus. After which, they showed us the college in the film city and the building where all the important functions of cinema like editing, recording, etc. take place.

And then it was our time to make place for the people of the next slot.

Clearly, Film city has witnessed many struggle-rs turning into a star.

Ainvayiii Fact – last year in August 2017, Film city was closed for a week due to leopard attacks.