Krishna Prasad, KP, one of Ramu's many youngling assistant directors, last worked with The History Channel on a show called Sharpe and with Wes Anderson on Darjeeling Limited, the hush-hush production the Rushmore director wound up before the Indian media could trace him, and I'm being regaled by tales of Bill Murray's meteoric temper when the Sarkar director arrives.
Ramu is in sunny mood, dressed in a lilac shirt and sporting golden highlights in his hair. He likes Hyderabad, saying it's a lot more relaxed, and that Ramoji has a great setup. "Plus, it was raining far too much in Mumbai, it kept disrupting the shooting schedule." So, as I discover following RGV onto the sets, Sarkar's quintessentially Mumbai bungalow has been recreated right here.
And while cameras are currently trained for a living room shot, the outsides hold the fascinating bit. Massive floor-to-ceiling blowups surround the building, flat photographs of palm trees and traffic -- it's hard to imagine that when seen through the prism of a well-lit camera, this wallpaper-style facade can look convincingly deep, but as I soon realise, it does perfectly nicely. Well, well.
As the lights are readied, ADs jump into room for the stars. A tall longhaired youth tries hard to keep a straight face as the cameras focus onto him as Sarkar, and it's decidedly surreal to hear the words 'Sam is Aishwarya' as yet another hapless neophyte fills in. Other senior actors - Govind Namdeo, Ravi Kale, Sivaji Satyam -- take their positions, cooling their heels. Bachchan, for whom the shoot is standing still, is late by at least ninety minutes.
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