"We have conquered the earth. Now it is time for the moon and the stars beyond," Director Shankar said to his assembled team of writers and assistant directors as they sat in the plush beachside resort in Maldives. The warm and pleasant sun wasn't the only thing that he was basking on; the success of his last film about a killer robot had surpassed all his other movies put together. "It is time to begin the next project and the only thing we know about this new movie we are going to make is that it will cost more than the previous one," he said amid drunken cheering. "I have a new Hollywood cameraman and special effects team ready to sign the papers. Charu here has agreed to write the chase sequences and they are going to be bigger and better than last time". More cheering. "We have had a week-long holiday and I am sure everybody is completely relaxed, ready and eager to begin work now. I want each one of you to pitch me an idea in three days. No idea is taboo. As long as it spells big commercial success, anything is fine."
That was three days ago.
The meetings were scheduled in increasing order of experience; the young and wet behind ears were called in first. Any second now, Karthi, the most senior of Assistant directors would be called in. Karthi was nervous. The usual brainstorming sessions were easy enough to handle; you let the eager-to-please young kids come up with ideas and you suggest a tweak there, a twist here and bingo! you have got yourself a script and a good day's work is done. But this one-on-one scared him. This was blatant 'What have you got to offer' challenge. Fifteen years he had been an assistant and he was afraid that he would get passed over. Three days and countless hours scouring through every movie on the pay-per-demand list later he was no closer to coming with anything. There was one sequence from Inception that he was counting on ; a shot of earth folded on itself and the hero running up and down defying gravity. But rumour has it that one of the juniors had already pitched it earlier in the day. Now, he truly had nothing.
Time was closing in.
The door opened and he was signaled in. It was all over.
Time did cartwheels and an hour later, Karthi walked out with his beaming boss. He had pulled out a golden-egg laying rabbit out of the hat. It was a fucking miracle.
He had started with what he thought of the director, hoping that flattery would get him through this ordeal. And then lightning struck. The motherlode. He remembered how Shankar had started the previous meeting with conquering the stars and decided to roll with it. The movie will involve astronuats, exploring space. Not in a dream sequence, dance routine kind of way, but for real. Throw in a few technical terms; rocket, resistor, transistor, satellite and jackpot! People saw him as the modern director, a risk-taker who used latest technology and scientific terms in his films that people would otherwise not ever encounter. This will be a first by an Indian film-maker. Not just some alien comes to earth in a flying saucer story. But real space exploration. Half the movie happens in the moon or in Mars.
With each sentence, he could sense Shankar's eyes glaze over in gleeful anticipation.
"There is one sequence that I can actually see in my mind's eye," said Karthi, "Villain and his goondas chasing the heroine through the sand dunes of the Mars, to rape her of course, their each step a leap due to the Mars' gravity, a tiny earth in the dark background and the hero with a jet pack flying through a volcanic eruption, are there volcanoes there, who cares, to save the heroine. Her oxygen tank runs out and the hero gives her lip kiss to keep her alive. Would make a dramatic scene, wouldn't it?"
He had thought that Karthi had dried out. How wrong was he! Seniority and experience did count for something. Shankar realised what a massive hit this was going to be. His success formula involved 2 parts larger-than-life hero, 2 parts patriotism, 1 part technology, 1 part set design, 2 parts sentiment, 1 part "I get the struggles of middle class" down-to-earthness,and 5 parts unfettered extravagance. This had all the ingredients, ticked all the boxes. He was already thinking ahead; he can get Thotta Tharani to erect huge sets, the size of stadiums. Planting the Indian flag in the Moon or Mars or whatever, was sure to create goosebumps. It has to be Mars, so we can say we have overtaken the Americans and the Chinese and the Russians. In the backstory of the hero, and a flashback in second half was his trademark style, he can show him as coming from a poor family, his mother holding a candle for him all through the night for him to study for his engineering entrance exam. The hero can say, "I didn't have money to buy a new shirt and now I am wearing space suit". Ignite youngsters' dreams. He can claim how he was doing a great service to the country by making this movie. Ah! he could borrow from Abdul Kalam's biography for the backstory. If he could get Abdul Kalam to say he liked the film, he could sell in B and C centres for an extra crore or two. And he can name-drop Kubrick, Asimov in interviews for the city people. If Vivek didn't get too preachy, he can do a nice comedy track. Maybe stick to Santhanam. he seems to be the flavour of the year. And Vairamuthu will have a field day with planetary references - 'Chevvay, Buthan, Ulagam unna suthuthu'. Sure there was work to be done; there was still songs and fights to conceptualise. But there will be a climactic battle scene with a thousand extras in alien costumes. Kind of like Avatar without cgi. The publicity wrote itself. Oh! the joy of being a director.
Everybody wins. Him more than others. But everybody wins.
That was three days ago.
The meetings were scheduled in increasing order of experience; the young and wet behind ears were called in first. Any second now, Karthi, the most senior of Assistant directors would be called in. Karthi was nervous. The usual brainstorming sessions were easy enough to handle; you let the eager-to-please young kids come up with ideas and you suggest a tweak there, a twist here and bingo! you have got yourself a script and a good day's work is done. But this one-on-one scared him. This was blatant 'What have you got to offer' challenge. Fifteen years he had been an assistant and he was afraid that he would get passed over. Three days and countless hours scouring through every movie on the pay-per-demand list later he was no closer to coming with anything. There was one sequence from Inception that he was counting on ; a shot of earth folded on itself and the hero running up and down defying gravity. But rumour has it that one of the juniors had already pitched it earlier in the day. Now, he truly had nothing.
Time was closing in.
The door opened and he was signaled in. It was all over.
Time did cartwheels and an hour later, Karthi walked out with his beaming boss. He had pulled out a golden-egg laying rabbit out of the hat. It was a fucking miracle.
He had started with what he thought of the director, hoping that flattery would get him through this ordeal. And then lightning struck. The motherlode. He remembered how Shankar had started the previous meeting with conquering the stars and decided to roll with it. The movie will involve astronuats, exploring space. Not in a dream sequence, dance routine kind of way, but for real. Throw in a few technical terms; rocket, resistor, transistor, satellite and jackpot! People saw him as the modern director, a risk-taker who used latest technology and scientific terms in his films that people would otherwise not ever encounter. This will be a first by an Indian film-maker. Not just some alien comes to earth in a flying saucer story. But real space exploration. Half the movie happens in the moon or in Mars.
With each sentence, he could sense Shankar's eyes glaze over in gleeful anticipation.
"There is one sequence that I can actually see in my mind's eye," said Karthi, "Villain and his goondas chasing the heroine through the sand dunes of the Mars, to rape her of course, their each step a leap due to the Mars' gravity, a tiny earth in the dark background and the hero with a jet pack flying through a volcanic eruption, are there volcanoes there, who cares, to save the heroine. Her oxygen tank runs out and the hero gives her lip kiss to keep her alive. Would make a dramatic scene, wouldn't it?"
He had thought that Karthi had dried out. How wrong was he! Seniority and experience did count for something. Shankar realised what a massive hit this was going to be. His success formula involved 2 parts larger-than-life hero, 2 parts patriotism, 1 part technology, 1 part set design, 2 parts sentiment, 1 part "I get the struggles of middle class" down-to-earthness,and 5 parts unfettered extravagance. This had all the ingredients, ticked all the boxes. He was already thinking ahead; he can get Thotta Tharani to erect huge sets, the size of stadiums. Planting the Indian flag in the Moon or Mars or whatever, was sure to create goosebumps. It has to be Mars, so we can say we have overtaken the Americans and the Chinese and the Russians. In the backstory of the hero, and a flashback in second half was his trademark style, he can show him as coming from a poor family, his mother holding a candle for him all through the night for him to study for his engineering entrance exam. The hero can say, "I didn't have money to buy a new shirt and now I am wearing space suit". Ignite youngsters' dreams. He can claim how he was doing a great service to the country by making this movie. Ah! he could borrow from Abdul Kalam's biography for the backstory. If he could get Abdul Kalam to say he liked the film, he could sell in B and C centres for an extra crore or two. And he can name-drop Kubrick, Asimov in interviews for the city people. If Vivek didn't get too preachy, he can do a nice comedy track. Maybe stick to Santhanam. he seems to be the flavour of the year. And Vairamuthu will have a field day with planetary references - 'Chevvay, Buthan, Ulagam unna suthuthu'. Sure there was work to be done; there was still songs and fights to conceptualise. But there will be a climactic battle scene with a thousand extras in alien costumes. Kind of like Avatar without cgi. The publicity wrote itself. Oh! the joy of being a director.
Everybody wins. Him more than others. But everybody wins.
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