by Thomas Steve Johnson
Given the nickname Bollywood by everybody across India, Film City is situated on the outskirts of the National Park. Since Bollywood churns out about 120 films every year, Film City sets are booked around the year. They are normally closed to visitors, but special permissions can always be granted for an occasional tour around the premise.
Is America a land of God where saints abide for ever? Where golden fields spread fair and broad, where flows the crystal river? Certainly not flush with saints, and a good thing, too, for the saints sent buzzing into man’s ken now are but poor- mouthed ecclesiastical film stars and cliché-shouting publicity agents.
Their little knowledge bringing them nearer to their ignorance,
Ignorance bringing them nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to God.
—Sean O’Casey (1884–1964)
I was once lucky to be part of this tour around Bollywood. A chauffer drove a group of us around accompanied by an escort who pointed out all our favourite star's houses like Amitabh Bachhan at Juhu, Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan in Bandstand after which he drove us to the Film city at Goregaon. We were taken to a typical film set that was of an elaborate palace. It was the set of Jodha Akbar, a high budget film casting Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai. We were told that the film was mostly shot in Rajasthan though several indoor shots, song sequences and retake shots were shot in Mumbai. This is a similar case for most big budget films. Most out door shots are done outside Mumbai or even out of the country.
As soon as we arrived we were given chairs to sit tactfully faraway from the site of the director yet close enough so we could se clearly. We were lucky to get a quick glimpse of Aishwarya Rai who did her shots (which to almost an hour for a single dialogue) and quickly went back into her van. The Asst Produce of the film explained that such is the case with most film stars. To keep their sanity they almost never interact with anybody else on the sets except for the director, co-actors and secretary.
All the old supports going, gone, this man reaches out a hand to steady himself on a ledge of rough brick that is warm in the sun: his hand feeds him messages of solidity, but his mind messages of destruction, for this breathing substance, made of earth, will be a dance of atoms, he knows it, his intelligence tells him so: there will soon be war, he is in the middle of war, where he stands will be a waste, mounds of rubble, and this solid earthy substance will be a film of dust on ruins.
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)
While on our way back from the Film City our escort informed us that we were one of the few very lucky set of tourists to actually get a chance to watch a shoot courtesy an assistant executive producer. Usually a bunch of tourists wouldn't be let into the studio. Feel lucky to have the same experience or if you get a chance to click pictures with the starlets of Bollywood. Mumbai Tour Operator http://www.mumbaibombay.com/india/bwood_tour.html