Facing the camera after almost two decades! This was quite an experience for me. The core team at our citizen initiative KMB had been talking about doing a short film on waste segregation which would go viral and make people understand how simple yet crucial the process is. Frenzied discussions ensued, meetings were held, mails were exchanged...and I with my chronic attention disorder, would peek in on those long mails every now and then and then scoot. At some point in the journey, I realised that I was going to be acting. Two days before the shoot, I figured that the script had a Kannada version too. Though I do know some basic Kannada that I gallivant proudly, this had some unpronounceable stuff which gave me the jitters. I called up Sugandhi Gadadhar, who along with her husband Rana Belur was directing the film to confirm that they really had me in mind to mouth this. I guess I gave her a mini heart attack (coincidentally, the mallu chap playing my brother in the film also gave her a last mte call on the same concern!) but she held up and said very calmly that we would manage. The next 24 hours saw me frenziedly trying to pronounce and then memorize the kannada stuff. If this had been a exam back in school or college, my parents and teachers would have been proud. Calls were made to multiple kannada speakers like Raghav Ragu and they were asked to pronounce the words for me (Thank God for Whatsapp!) My biggest fear was spoonerism. It used to be my nemesis during my compering days at Asianet, DD and Soorya tv. Repeating a line too many times would inevitably have me giving a totally different spin. In fact, at my very first audition, I mispronounced Johnson-te golden sangeetham as Gonson-te jolden sangeetham. Thank God there was no Youtube back then! Anyway, when the day of reckoning came, I think all of us fared pretty well, with my screen father-in-law (Sugandhis dad), screen son and screen dog taking the honours. Everytime Uncle mouthed his sarcastic lines about his screen son, we would burst out laughing and there would have to be a retake. The other challenge was to get my screen son to sit still. How can you find fault with a four year who had to break into the middle of the scene asking, Arre, are you people still repeating the same lines? Hats off to Sugandhi and Rana for their patience and attention to detail. Directors definitely have a tougher job than actors! We sincerely hope that our short film demystifies waste segregation for everyone and inspires more people to start segregating. Everytime you view and share this, a landfill somewhere heaves a huge sigh of relief. Please share! https://youtube/watch?v=Yu9hTA6o4uI https://youtube/watch?v=W5Q5at3EFN4
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 02:46:24 +0000
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