Shooting a Mumbai you've never seen Aamir

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@SecretKhabri420

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Posted: 17 years ago

Hi friends,

Shooting a Mumbai you've never seen in Aamir

Chennai-based Alphonse Roy showed Mumbai in a new light through his camerawork in the Rajeev Khandelwal-starrer, Aamir. He showed us a part of Mumbai that many Mumbaikars have probably never seen. Directed by first-timer, Raj Kumar Gupta, Aamir is one of 2008's best films, with its gritty tale about terrorism. Alphonse is better known as a wildlife cinematographer -- he has made documentaries for BBC Natural World, National Geographical and Discovery Channel. He is India's first Emmy award winner for his wildlife documentaries. He made his feature film debut with Tamil film, Okukku Noorper, which won a state award.

Alphonse told Patcy N how he shot Aamir in the poorest parts of Mumbai, and his next, Mumbai Cutting.

In which places did you shoot Aamir? Bheram Pada, Naupada, Dharavi, Kasai Khana in Chor Bazaar... The National hotel and Gulistan building shown in the film actually exist. The main character in the film, apart from Rajeev, was Mumbai. Raj Kumar finalised all the locations. I spent three weeks in those areas, trying to understand the areas and take photographs from all angles. How did you shoot in those small bylanes? When we went to these places, we realised that not much light penetrates inside the lanes. And since the lanes were very small, our equipment could not enter inside. My wildlife cinematography came in handy, and we would shoot in natural light. We made the crew wait at a distance, and only a few of us would go to the area with the camera. We would hide in a van and shoot. If the van could not go to some of the places, I would carry the camera on my shoulders and shoot. Since the film's budget is small, Rajeev and all of us had to do the scene in one take.

In the picture: Local goons try to rob Aamir's red suitcase, containing money.

Tell us about shooting in the dilapidated building, where Rajeev's Aamir has to enter to pick up a phone number from the toilet. The building, Gulistan, exists, and people actually stay in such a place. It was very tough to get permission to shoot in this building. The property belongs to the railways. Since the building is very old, the railways did not want to take any risk; so they did not give us permission. Then we went to the BMC, where we faced the same problem because the building was so old that it might collapse while shooting. But we got permission. It's sad that people actually live there and nobody is doing anything about it. Was the toilet real? Of course! The shit you saw in the film was real too. If we are making realistic stories and shooting at the real locations, why should we erect sets for a toilet sequence? The crew started closing their noses with handkerchiefs but I said that I would walk out if people did that. There are people living in such circumstances, and we cannot insult them by closing our noses. The building's condition is so bad that only one person can stand on one stair at a time. The staircase wobbles if too much pressure is put on it. We shot in that building for three days. We took long because we would start shooting from the stairs, and come towards the toilet only to realise that someone was in it. And we couldn't tell them not to use their own loo. Rajeev never threw tantrums or made a face while shooting that scene. He was very accommodating.

In the picture: Roy shoots the scene where Rajeev rushes out from the toilet, and vomits in a nearby garbage heap.

Which was your toughest shot? The scene when Rajeev comes out of the airport, and the taxi carrying his luggage drives off without him. Rajeev starts chasing the taxi, and I had to run behind him with the camera on my shoulder. As Rajeev is comfortable with Mumbai traffic, he started running between cars. But I was nervous, as the cars were moving fast. The other tough shot was in the STD booth. There was hardly any space in the booth. After the phone call in the booth, a policeman follows Rajeev, which turns into a chase sequence. They start running between lanes. I sat on a bike, with my back to the rider. I couldn't hold on to the bike, as I was carrying my camera. That's how we shot the scene. It was quite an experience. I could not show time passing through the camera. It's only through dialogue that you know that the time passes in the film. The hotel in which Rajeev waits was shot in the night. So we had to light up the room and make it look like a day sequence.

In the picture: Local goons return to their den after they steal Aamir's red suitcase, containing money.

Tell us about the shot in the slaughter house. That was a wonderful but tiring experience. In this slaughter house, the meat comes in at 4:30 am and it's sold out by 7:30 am. So we had to stay awake the whole night. As soon as the meat arrived, and we started shooting, the butchers got angry with us, as they thought we were ruining their business. One of them actually held a knife to my assistant, Archana's neck. Some people started pushing Rajeev. You can't blame them, as it is their daily bread and butter. But we explained everything to them, and then they were okay with it. I have shot in many places but the Mumbai people are the most co-operative.

In the picture: Shooting in the slaughter house, which Aamir passes on the way to meet a group of terrorists.

Gajraj Rao, the villain, was shot in the dark throughout. Yes, we shot Gajraj in a dark room. We did a lot of contrasts. Gajraj was always shown in the dark while Rajeev was always in the light. Gajraj spoke about religion and only wore white clothes. Rajeev wore black clothes. He never spoke against religion but did not support Gajraj either. The director was trying to hint that people, who always talk about religion and look pious need not be good whereas people, who don't follow all this, may not be against religion. There were a handful of actors in a story that took place in a single day. There was no change of clothes, and the camera followed the two protagonists throughout the film. How difficult was it to keep the audience involved? The biggest advantage we had was that we were moving very fast. Like, we travelled through so many places in Mumbai. After every few minutes, we would return to Gajraj. So we were not monotonous; things kept changing on screen. After Aamir, you will shoot Mumbai again, in Mumbai Cutting. Mumbai Cutting is a collection of short stories shot by different directors in a single film. I am doing the camerawork for Revathi's story. It stars Sonali Kulkarni and Vinay Pathak. It is about human trafficking.

The movie is shot in and around Mumbai Central station, mostly in an old building. This building has an historic relevance. It was made by a Parsi after the World War II for refugees. The Mumbai in this film is similar to that in Aamir. We shot this story in four days.

Link:

https://specials.rediff.com/movies/2008/jun/19slld1.htm