Monday, September 19, 2005
Mumbai, continued
Saturday, we filmed at the Ganesh Festival, Mumbai’s biggest religious gathering. I don’t know what 1 million people looks like, but I think it looks like what I saw yesterday. It was mayhem – but not the complete chaos I had feared. There was something actually organized about the procession of people, whether they pulled Ganesh statues, rode on trucks, or simply walked down the parade route. The festival takes place over 11 days and yesterday was the final day. Hordes of people paraded to the beach to immerse the idols in the sea. The trucks had loudspeakers blaring music, and people danced and played the drums on their way. Those on the trucks threw confetti, candy, and bright colored powder on the spectators. I was christened early with a hot pink powder bomb and spent the rest of the night looking like I got a day-glo sunburn on my face and clothes. The thing that struck me the most was the waves and waves of people that kept coming down the road to the sea – where did they all come from? The area we were at – near Chowpatty Beach – was just one of about 10 parade sites in the city. So this thing attracted more people than I’ve ever seen in my life, combined!
Our objective was to film parts of the Festival that we can cut into “One Night in Mumbai”, a film I’m producing. In the script, our 3 lead actors get tangled with a gangster in a Mumbai club and escape into the Festival crowd. So we had 3 different cameras filming wide, establishing shots and close “point-of-view” shots in the crowd. I stayed with the steadicam unit. Our DP and operator were fearless – we’d roll camera and then our crew would rush fearlessly into the crowd yelling and knocking people over to simulate someone lost and confused.
Now that we finished shooting, I’m concentrating on meetings and seeing film sets. It’s going well, more on life here a little later. I need to get some sleep!
Our objective was to film parts of the Festival that we can cut into “One Night in Mumbai”, a film I’m producing. In the script, our 3 lead actors get tangled with a gangster in a Mumbai club and escape into the Festival crowd. So we had 3 different cameras filming wide, establishing shots and close “point-of-view” shots in the crowd. I stayed with the steadicam unit. Our DP and operator were fearless – we’d roll camera and then our crew would rush fearlessly into the crowd yelling and knocking people over to simulate someone lost and confused.
Now that we finished shooting, I’m concentrating on meetings and seeing film sets. It’s going well, more on life here a little later. I need to get some sleep!
