After cinematographer displays symptoms during Jubin Nautiyal's music video shoot in Udaipur, three more test positive for virus; unit home-quarantined upon return to Mumbai
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; September 7, 2020)

On September 1, singer Jubin Nautiyal, actors Asim Riaz and Sakshi Malik, and a team of 10 technicians returned to Mumbai after a music video shoot. The yet-untitled single, sung by Nautiyal, was filmed over a week in Udaipur with a unit comprising the 13-member crew from Mumbai and 15 local technicians.

While the proceedings kicked off smoothly in the last week of August, director of photography (DoP) Sameer Arya complained of dry cough and fever on the fourth day of the shoot. The cinematographer immediately alerted the unit that he had developed Coronavirus symptoms, and resorted to self-quarantine at the hotel.

A source from the local unit says, "It was a lean team of less than 30 people. We underwent a COVID test before we started shooting. Sameer displayed symptoms in the last leg of the shoot. So, the assistant cinematographer took over his duties for the remaining three days. Meanwhile, Sameer consulted a doctor to keep the fever in check and stayed in isolation. As soon as the shoot was wrapped up, the Mumbai team left for the city on Monday night."

Since travelling by air would risk other passengers to exposure, T-Series, the production house backing the single, promptly arranged for the team to travel by road. On reaching Mumbai, three more unit hands tested positive in the next few days. "Director Ashish Panda, production head Ravi Chaturvedi and the director's first assistant Tushar Thalipayal showed mild symptoms. They are all quarantining at home now," says the source. It is heard that two members of the local crew complained of fever and cough, but were found to be negative. "As a precautionary measure, the production house has asked the entire unit to home-quarantine for 14 days," adds the source. Nautiyal, Riaz and Malik, who feature in the song, have tested negative.

mid-day reached out to the studio, which declined to comment.

The Motley family: Jairaj Patil, Akash Khurana, Naseeruddin Shah and Benjamin Gilani with Ratna Pathak Shah. Pic/Shadab Khan

Four decades after Waiting for Godot's debut at Prithvi Theatre, Naseeruddin Shah and Benjamin Gilani's theatre group shows no signs of slowing down. As they get ready to revisit five of their plays at Prithvi next month, they revisit their first act
Ekta Mohta (MID-DAY; June 30, 2019)

Naseeruddin Shah, looking like Einstein, and Benjamin Gilani, now sporting a wig, are discussing cricket and women like 40 years haven't passed. In the hippie decade, the two became college buddies at FTII, Pune; then co-actors in Shyam Benegal's Junoon, 1978; and then co-founders of the theatre group, Motley, in quick scene-changes. Gilani, who had been part of The Shakespeare Society in St Stephen's College, recalls, "He asked me, 'How come you haven't done any theatre in Bombay in the last five years?' I said I can't afford it." So, they started with a play that was easy on the pocket: Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.

Since then, Motley has done 44 productions, including The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (1990), Dear Liar (1994), Ismat Apa Ke Naam (2000) and The Father (2017). They celebrate 40 years next month, the party for which includes reviving five of their plays at Prithvi Theatre. Along their journey, the twosome also became a family, with producer Jairaj Patil, and actors Ratna Pathak Shah and Akash Khurana onboard. When we sit with them to trace their early days, they've just gone over the same questions and memories with another journalist. But Shah says, in theatre parlance, "Once more with feeling."


Julius Caesar

'What Was The Cheapest Classic We Could Do?'

In July 1979, when Motley's Waiting for Godot debuted at Prithvi Theatre, Shah played Didi and Gilani played Gogo, the two clowns. Khurana says, "That was the cheapest classic we could do. It had a huge budget by those standards: Rs 5,000. But, that was the only play that had one dirty tree, with a leaf sometimes, and tattered costumes. I did four shows as Didi, and I wore the same costume."

Naseeruddin Shah: I'm not the only one in the world who did not understand Waiting for Godot. I wrote an essay [in NSD, Delhi] that this play is absolute nonsense. The writer is making a fool of everybody. I got thoroughly blasted for writing such a thing. But, when we started working on it, and concentrated on the words and not worry so much about the meaning, it began to make sense. Like in any great poetry, it states things in a very simple, recognisable and brief way.

Benjamin Gilani: Didi and Gogo have been together for 50 years. When you think of 50 years, that play should have been as thick as the Bible. Prithvi Theatre was being built at that time. During the shooting of Junoon, I asked Jennifer Kendal Kapoor, "What are you going to do with this theatre?" She said, "I don't know. Take it. It's yours." Three sentences. So, we started off and Godot fell into place, by chance, not so much by design. When people actually came to see the play, we hadn't hit a goldmine, but we started doing short plays: Chekhov, Pinter, Genet, Mortimer. There was something as difficult as The Lesson [by Eugène Ionesco]; and on the other hand, we had Chekhov's The Bear.

Ratna Pathak Shah: But frankly, we were just blundering. We all learnt on the job. There was nobody to tell you how to do anything. We were all lucky that we at least got Satyadev Dubey, in terms of his ideas and not letting poverty get in the way of perfection. There were times when there was nobody backstage. Everyone was either onstage or in the light booth.

Shah: Nothing lonelier than the backstage of Godot.


The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial

'Naseer Wanted To Do Julius Caesar In Jeans And T-Shirts'

The group performed The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial by Herman Wouk and Julius Caesar by Shakespeare in 1990 and 1992 respectively. When asked about their favourite plays, Khurana says, "I think if you take a consensus from the older lot, you will find Godot and Caine emerging as winners." Julius Caesar was an important milestone as well, but for entirely different reasons.

Shah: I bought a copy of Caine Mutiny for Rs 5 on the pavement at Churchgate station. It was a tattered paperback, and it lay around with me for years, like the Einstein script [by Gabriel Emanuel], like A Walk in the Woods [by Lee Blessing]. One day, I picked it up and I was electrified.

Gilani: It involved a large number of people — at least by Motley's standards — 17 people. And, there were 70 people in Julius Caesar. The youngest was 4, the oldest was 74. There were three generations [of one family]. The logistics was the biggest challenge.

Pathak Shah: How many sandwiches do I order today? Starting from there to: how do you get everyone dressed backstage in Sophia Bhabha Hall, in Roman costumes with shields, swords and banners? Where do you store that stuff?

Gilani: Originally, Naseer wanted to do it in jeans and T-shirts. But, Julius Caesar was on the course of 13 schools, and they didn't want to see Brutus in jeans.

Shah: I was muddled as a director, I have to admit. I had [NSD director Ebrahim] Alkazi on my mind. Alkazi did these grand productions with 30 people carrying flaming torches onstage. Meanwhile, I got introduced to Dubey's method. And, I was torn between the two. It didn't really work, and I had edited the play, changed a few things, which appalled a lot of the teachers. One teacher said, "What about reference to context? If you have given Cassius's speech to Brutus, students will get confused." I said, "You've been teaching this play for one year and your students will get confused with one performance? What kind of a teacher are you?"


Waiting for Godot

'We Had No Message, No Political Agenda'

In the last two decades, Motley's focus has shifted to storytelling theatre, and also, plays in Hindustani. Starting with Ismat Apa Ke Naam (2000), they have interpreted the works of Ismat Chughtai and Manto extensively, and also opened up the platform for more roles for women.

Gilani: There were no Hindi plays. Even now there are very few. As Naseer had pointed out then, and I agree 100 per cent, if you're going to translate from one language to another, you need to know both languages like a grammarian.

Shah: The translator must be of the same level. How many times can you do Aadhe Adhure and Andha Yug, which are the only two worthwhile original plays in Hindi? Ghashiram Kotwal and Sakharam Binder are in Marathi. Tughlaq is in Kannada and so on. The plays we wanted to do happened to be in English. Then we started feeling limited. That's why I felt the need to perform in Hindustani. But, shortage of plays is still there.

Gilani: It's a matter of economics. Where does a writer earn money, unless you happen to be Chetan Bhagat? And, that's not really writing of any calibre, that's promotion.

Pathak Shah: The playwriting issue is a big one in our country. And now, with the invasion of your personal equipment with all kinds of information and entertainment, it's going to be very hard for live arts to stay around. [Regarding the lack of roles for women], it wasn't a deliberate attempt to keep women out. I was the only girl around, and I don't think I was much liked as an actress. And rightly so, because my skills in early Motley days were very, very basic. I have also grown since then, and fortunately, Dubey trusted me. He found plays for me. We were making do with whatever we had around us. And there were no other girls around. Maybe they got scared of me and ran away.

Shah: You can only cast in a play somebody you can trust with your life. You cannot take a chance of a person not turning up or not delivering the goods.

Gilani: That's one word that operates very strongly: 'trust'. If we didn't trust each other implicitly, we wouldn't have stuck around, and we're going back 45 years.

Shah: I think a strong reason for me [to start Motley] was to be able to spend time with people I enjoyed spending time with and produce something creative. Instead of sitting in a party or chatting, you're sharing creative juices with people you like. What greater joy can there be? And it's really because of friends that we continue, the encouragement and support we receive, the belief they had in our work, which initially was shabby and amateurish. Dubey used to say, "I do theatre for the 10-15 people I love. I don't give a damn about the rest." And, it's really true to a large extent. We had no message, no political agenda, no profound reason for doing theatre. We were not exploring or trying to understand the nature of theatre. We were content with what we knew. And, we had great fun.

Gilani: [I remember], in Godot, we had this young boy, who is a very famous cinematographer now, Sameer Arya. The boy comes twice, and in the second act, we have started and Sameer went off to sleep. And, Naseer and I are waiting. Somehow we managed to get the play together. After that, Sameer was holding on to his mother, thinking he's gonna get a mouthful from Naseer. Though I had directed the play, Naseer was the one who would give mouthfuls at the time. Naseer didn't say a word. Now, this guy (audience member) comes and says, "I particularly liked your second act's interpretation. You didn't bring the boy. It was a touch of genius."

Khurana: This other time, we were in Bengaluru, and in the middle of an intense scene, this lady in sari and perfume says, "Yeh car number kiski hai? It's been parked there. Bataiye, aisa hota hai? Sorry, but we have to stop this show." And the curtain came down. In five minutes, we resumed, and something very interesting happened. The next few lines, whatever we said, coincided in context with what had happened. So, she became a star in absentia. She became Godot in a sense. It brought the house down.

The Influence Of Satyadev Dubey
Akash Khurana says, "For me, he was a bridge for Motley. At that time, Dubey was in his Renaissance phase. He cast me in Abe Bewakoof, and he hated my performance, because he was supposed to cast Amrish Puri. I had my wardrobe [ready], part of my wedding stuff, so that was great for Dubey because impoverished theatre: costume ke saath aaya hai. I tried to sound like Puri sahab and screwed my vocal chords. And Chhabildas Hall, that's another legend: you could hear hawkers shouting, TVs blaring, windows open, fans creaking, and I'm in a three-piece. But Naseer liked what I did. Cut to a few years later, theatre, struggle, job, house-hunting, which is another trauma, and we were homeless. I had a kid, a suitcase and no place to go. He called us over and I lived with him for 11 months. What happened there was not just the sharan (shelter) I got, but an exclusive gurukul. You sleep, wake up, read and drink rum with Dubey. I was getting an oral history of Bombay's theatre. Talk about influences."

Anirban Das (MID-DAY; May 9, 2016)

After hitlist reported about unit hands of Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Bullett Raja awaiting their dues three years after the film’s release (Wage-ing a war, on May 5), a few people associated with Sanjay Gupta’s last directorial, Jazbaa, have brought forth a similar complaint.

Sources suggest dialogue writer Kamlesh Pandey, screenplay writer Robin Bhatt, choreographer Ahmed Khan, director of photography Sameer Arya and a few others have not received full payment for working on the film, which hit theatres on October 9 last year. Unlike Bullett Raja, which misfired at the box office leading to losses for the makers, Jazbaa starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Irrfan did fairly well.

“The total amount due is more than Rs 20 lakh. They had reached out to Gupta and he has assured them that the dues will be cleared once he receives the payment from Essel Vision (which produced the film),” says a source.

However, those awaiting their remuneration are in a fix since there is no clarity over who is supposed to clear the dues. Pandey says, “I have not received the last instalment of my pay. We spoke to Gupta and he told us that all payments will be made once he gets a certain amount from Essel Vision. Essel Vision, on the other hand, has informed us that it is the responsibility of Gupta’s company.”

While Gupta remained unavailable for comment, Nittin Keni, CEO-Essel Vision, says, “Essel Vision was supposed to give the production and direction cost to Sanjay Gupta’s company, White Feather Films. We had made payments to him to make the film. He was supposed to enter into an agreement with all actors, writers, technicians and other members, and make the payments to them from the production cost we had given him. If he has not made the payments, then he should be questioned. We have informed the members, who have not received their payments, about this.”

Cinematographer Sameer Arya takes us behind the cameras of Divya Khosla Kumar's second directorial, Sanam Re
Sameer Arya (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 28, 2016)


Just like Divya Khosla Kumar's directorial debut, Yaariyan, the colour palette of her second film, Sanam Re, too was decided well in advance, followed by a three-week recce. We shot the film between December, 2014 and August, 2015.

Ladakh's picturesque valleys, mountainous terrain and rivers are really difficult to shoot. Maintaining the right light is a task because if the wind picks up, the weather changes almost every 30 minutes. Oxygen scarcity at high altitudes is another issue.

I am glad that our EP (executive producer), Sumeet Mishra, arranged for a doctor to be present on the sets. I'm in love with Ladakh now, it's breathtakingly beautiful, and I will definitely be back for another shoot, even if it leaves me short of breath.

Once, while filming at Pangong Lake, I spotted a beautiful bird skimming on the water and started tracking it with my camera. Divya saw this on the monitor and decided to use it in a few shots. I told her it would be impossible. She simply smiled and motioned towards one of the assistants, Mohan, who ran into the freezing water making strange sounds. In 15 minutes he was surrounded by dozens of such birds. We got our shots and he got a new name, 'Mohan Re'.

We were dressed in three layers of winter clothes while shooting at the lake, but the lead pair, Pulkit Samrat and Yami Gautam, in regular cotton clothes, shivered their way through an intimate scene. Another time, Yami was in an off-shoulder dress, Pulkit was shirtless and Urvashi Rautela was wearing only a bikini. The temperature was sub-zero!

Divya goes to great lengths to find picture-perfect locations for her story and it is my job to make them look even better. I have shot the movie on The Arriflex Alexa XT. Divya is very particular about close ups and wide-angle shots so I called for the Angenieux Optimo 28-340 for the outdoors and the Angenieux 24-290 for the indoors, which has a fast aperture of T : 2.8. These two lenses give the best of Prime Lenses a run for their money.

We had planned a schedule in China but couldn't get the necessary permissions in time so we headed to Alberta, Canada. But a string of forest fires there affected our depth of field. It was so bad that we couldn't see the sky for a few days and could only shoot indoors.

Once when we were filming in the picturesque, quaint town of Waterton it got a little overcast and I asked a crew member to fire up an HMI which is a pretty heavy light. The wind suddenly picked up and five people had to hold it down.

BOMBAY TIMES (October 8, 2015)

Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 22, 2015)

Last year, Umesh Shukla's team was panic-stricken when Rishi Kapoor went missing from the sets of All Is Well. "We were shooting an important sequence in Himachal Pradesh where Rishiji was a part of a funeral procession. We searched for him all day and eventually, a spot boy found him munching samosas and drinking chai with a local family in their home. Everyone was glued to the TV screen, watching Bol Bachchan," reminisces director Umesh Shukla. And that wasn't the only surprise sprung on the unsuspecting unit. Once, when they were filming in Mashobra, their car broke down. They were all scheduled to fly back to Mumbai the next day so they had to wrap up the shoot even though the weather was bad and the road was covered in snow.

In consultation with Umesh, cinematographer Sameer Arya got Abhishek and Rishi to get off and push the car with Asin and Supriya, sitting inside. "The camera was fixed on the car and captured the windmill fields in the background, while the two actors huffed and puffed their way through a great, improvised shot. The car breakdown was a blessing in disguise," Umesh smiles.

The road trip flick is about a family on the run from goons. For one such cat-and-mouse chase, Sameer shot the mini-train which runs from Shimla to Chandigarh from inside, above and outside it. "Umesh made me stand on top of the moving train. Even though it wasn't going too fast, it was a scary but thrilling ride," Sameer recalls.

There are constant disagreements between the flamboyant and quarrelsome father (played by Rishi) and his introverted son who wants to pursue a career in singing. The mother has Alzheimer's and the girlfriend is trying to glue the cracks. "I had warned Sameer about the power cuts in Himachal. Once when we were filming a romantic scene between Asin and Abhishek, the lights went off and the shoot came to an abrupt halt. We then shot in broad daylight and switched to night mode with visual effects during post-production," Umesh reveals.

Quiz him on the film's highlight and he quips, "Rishi Kapoor peeing. His constant need to relieve himself is just a gag. And we filmed him in the act near the picturesque Igatpuri lake. It was picture perfect," he laughs.