when the king went away...

u feel a lil jilted, a lil unsure how to react when something you count as a "standard" in the world goes away.

michael jackson passed away today (they say suffering from a cardiac arrest)... just when he was planning a comeback. ironically the random playlist i was listening to was playing "blood on the dance floor" (i smiled thinking "it's been a while... still luv the beats") as the news broke. it's on every news channel, every website. people thronged to his home, the hospital where they took him, to his star on hollywood boulevard. and not just because he had the highest selling something or the most famous something or because he turned music videos into an art form... there are stars, and then there are superstars, but there's always, always... only 1 king. some can change your emotions... some change the world forever.

he'd been thru a lot, seen all the highs and lows you can imagine... but persisted. i think the only right way to address this is as cnn did: "entertainer MJ passes away". more than just a singer... an icon... an entertainer.

he churned out album after album of superhits, and i grew up on them... we all did. my fave stanza though is from "the man in the mirror":

A Willow Deeply Scarred,

Somebody's Broken Heart

And A Washed-Out Dream

They Follow The Pattern OfThe Wind, Ya' See

Cause They Got No Place To Be

That's Why I'm Starting With...

Me

as i sit not 3 miles from where he lies now, the news still seems surreal.

am going to be in denial for a few days...

r.i.p. m.j.

why follow, when you can lead

for the longest time, i've always wanted to make a movie. today, i'm doing it.

odd as it may seem, the first time i realized the power of entertainment was watching Mr. Natwarlal, where one amitabh bachchan through sheer brilliance, sold a script filled with ridiculuousness ranging from an honest cop being framed by a don, to his younger brother growing up pretending to be a world-famous smuggler to exact revenge, all while singing, dancing and occassionaly fighting off a man-eating tiger. (coz no story is complete without a man-eating tiger lol!)

something clicked then ... and its been clicking away ever since. everyone has at least one good film in them... everyone.

through all the trials and tribulations of daily life, i can't help but admit i've had a lifetime filled with interesting events, interesting people... and even more interesting stories. stories, yes... that's what film making is about... what it should be about (although am sure not everyone agrees here!) that's what i'm here to do... tell interesting stories.

a question was posed: what should we make? the answer...? 6 script-ideas in 3 days... that's how much passion this team has. yes, a team of techies... yes, a team of novices... yes, we're doing it.

we picked the simplest idea and went ahead with "Colt" (working title)... a conversation piece. it pays to work with people who understand your thoughts. my first 1 was... i'm not making a 1 minute short clip with an "and the moral of the story is..." at the end. i wanted to make a 10 minute movie... and hearing a resounding yes from the team made me want to pump my fists up in the air.

"Colt" isn't easy... nothing in film-making is. scripting, camera angles, lighting, sound, location, acting, editing, marketing... the list goes on... and we've been checking things off of that list for some 4 months now.

we pulled in every resource: from youtube to google to "people who know this stuff" to walking in to camera rental stores (only to be ridiculed by the staff behind the counter coz we didn't know each detail). others said, "great! that's a good hobby... you can shoot in a room with a cheap handycam... should take a few weeks". these people deserve 33 chair shots to the head (reference: wrestling)

this is not a hobby.

my team pulls in hours after 12-hour work-days... and then works weekends. we didn't fall into the temptation of "lets just make 1 and see". we wrote the script... and we've re-written it 10 times since. from budgeting (ahem!) to auditions, from costume & make-up to mock-shoots, we're taking it 1-day at a time. so what is it that keeps us going? it's the luv for entertainment... not for music, not for films, but for entertainment. passion is the heart and soul of our team.

people always assume a new venture is born out of boredom. they expect us to follow the norms: give it a shot, don't spend too much time/money/effort on it, get bored, move on. get a good laugh out of it. every complaint about a bad movie has always been met with "ah it's ok.. what can you do? let's not watch this guy's next movie"... just follow the norms.

this is my team: onkar, nayeem, sailesh, sravanti, marut and i
(spcl mention: ashwin)

and no, we're not using a cheap handy-cam. this will be an HD 24p movie shot on a professional camera. and yes, it will be b&w.

we are not here to test our talents... we're here to show them.

so why follow, when you can lead...