Part 24

As we approached our table I quickly asked him if he got an up-front fee for his appearance and he said that he did; about a million rupees. I did a quick calculation and realised that he had made a hundred thousand pounds today.

We were seated and made idle chatter as we ate. I had Aganee on one side and I asked her what she thought of the day and she mirrored my thoughts by saying that she hoped that the director knew what he was doing. Anudeep heard this and told us that he had worked with the director before on Bollywood song scenes and that, although it seemed like total mayhem, the results spoke for themselves. “I am very interested in how today works out” he said “I had not seen him get so animated towards the end of the day but we usually wind it up in the mid-afternoon so we can start fresh the next day.”

When we had all finished eating, Lajpal stood up and congratulated everyone on a good couple of days. He said that the video team had been post-producing as we were filming and, while we had been eating, had told him that they had finished the clip. He directed us to look at a big screen to one side of the room and it flickered into life with the usual count-down numbers and then the music began and the scene was gauze drapes flowing in the breeze. I just couldn’t believe what we had achieved as the clip moved on. There were close-up shots as we sang, panning shots and, when the dancers were in full flight, even an overhead showing the patterns they made. That one must have been filmed the day before as it was not interrupted. Anudeep and I looked, and sounded, like we were lovers.

When it finished the whole room broke out in spontaneous applause and cheering. I could see that this was truly a money shot. I hugged Anudeep and he hugged everyone around him. In the general movement of people hugging I moved to Janet and she hugged me and said “Well done.” I looked her in the eyes and said “Janet, when Lajpal comes up to you this evening to ask if we would do a Dhawanee video of the song we recorded yesterday, tell him we will for two million rupees and not a rupee less. Then sweeten it and say that the band will record and shoot another one the day after for the same amount. Don’t even think about backing down!” She nodded and I then said “Then tell him we will record the video in one take but will take as many extras as the producer wants so that he can get his effects but we must do the songs complete each time.”

After that there was dancing and when I say dancing it was truly amazing. There were the fifty dancers in the room and they all loved their skills and I was almost carried around the floor by a succession of handsome males, as were all of the other girls. The girls that danced with Balnoor looked like they had won a lottery. All the time the photographers were taking pictures of us lapping up the lavish lifestyle. I suppose that their showbiz papers were the same as back home, nothing but glam and glitter with very little real stories unless it was to bring some star back to earth with a thud.

Towards the end of the evening Janet got our band together and told us that we had been asked to do another audio recording tomorrow along with a shoot in the afternoon and another the following day. We would wear the clothes supplied for the recording previously and the afternoon shoot would be with us still in that dress. The following day would be something different and the director would have a hand in that as he had a few ideas. She said that she had insisted that we do each take with the whole song and the director had agreed as long as we could do extras so he could get his angles. The dancers would be practising for the day after so the last day would be a bit more extravagant.

This meant that whatever we choose as tomorrows recording will need to be out of the box. Tavleen had a look on her face and I knew she felt the same. I asked her what she thought and she said “Let’s make it epic, what say we insist on a ten minute raga, the one we usually start our show with?” We chatted while Janet went out into the dining area and collared the director and Lajpal. When they came in she told the two of them that we wanted the second song, and the full day shoot, to be a ten minute raga that was the opening number on our CD. That way the dancers can put something together tomorrow and the director could work out his shots. They agreed immediately and there was smiles all round.

The next morning we were rousted by the maids with our breakfasts, followed by the dressers and make-up artists who recreated our look from two days prior. We were taken to the recording studio and I got them to supply another pair of dholaks for me. Damini and I had a bit of a chat at how we would work it and then we got ourselves in place and ran through the raga. It took four takes before everyone was happy and I hugged Damini because our complex rhythm worked well. After that we went to the ‘Intimate Studio’ where we had done the interview.

It had been transformed into a nightclub setting and the director was there with yet another set of fifty dancers. As the original song was a love song we were settled on stage in our usual positions I realised that these dancers had been dancing to the tune for most of the morning because, as we played along to the audio feed, they had it nailed. I was out in front, emoting as a good singer should and there seemed to be a forest of boom-mounted cameras waving around in front of me. We did the song six times, missing lunch, and the director finally clapped his hands and told us we had done well and he was happy. Anudeep had been watching on and told me that I seemed to have altered the directors system as he would have normally had a two hour lunch and worked through the afternoon.

Back in the hotel we were transformed back into normal people and had a late lunch. After this we were offered a helicopter tour of the city and we did so in two helicopters. Of course, when we landed in various places we were alone for only minutes before a crowd gathered. I suppose a bright yellow helicopter with ‘Bollywood Air’ painted on it in bright red flames did have that effect. We did get to see some of the sights and it was a welcome break. Flying over the choked streets I was glad I wasn’t down there.

Back in the hotel I was once more besieged by my dressers and make-up girls. Tonight I had a different long dress that went well with the emerald ear-rings and choker. After dinner that night we watched the new video. It didn’t have the glitz of the other one but it was a well-crafted piece of work and showed the band for the fine instrumentalists they were. I reckoned I looked good out front as well. We were actually a bigger crowd that night with the extra dancers and I wondered what the director had in mind for tomorrow. Before the dancing started I asked Anudeep and he said “Geet, this director is, at heart, a true Indian traditionalist, in spite of his modern skills. I think that we will see something amazing in the morning that is all India and all Bollywood. You picking a ten minute raga allowed him to throw caution to the wind and I half-expect that there would be a couple of trucks with elephants arriving in the morning, if not a whole cage of tigers.”

I found out next morning that he wrong about the tigers. We were rousted at an ungodly hour with breakfast and my maid told me just to shower and dress casual as I would be fitted at the studio where they already had a range of outfits that would suit me. We were all taken to ‘Sound Stage One’ and I was the only one in the band not in a matching Indian dress. I asked Janet and she told me that she had been told that we will know what will happen when we get there. When we walked into the sound stage it was set up like a palace forecourt with a balcony and the fake front doors of the palace. The floor in front was covered in coloured tiles and it all looked grand. Off to one side there was a wall with a big gate in it. The director said that the scene was one in front of the Rajahs’ palace and the raga would be to welcome the Rajah and his new Ranee to the palace. They would enter about halfway through the raga and would join the dancing.

Anudeep was standing beside me and whispered “Welcome to your new career, Geet. I will love acting with you. This scene is one of those previously written for my last movie before I retire. My wife has been on at me for ages and wants to travel the world as normal people – well, normal rich people. The Rajah, me, has met and wooed a nubile maiden in the film and this scene is the entrance of the newly married couple to his palace. The director has truly grasped the mettle and I think that Lajpal has not fully realised what this scene will put into action. If it works well you will have to be asked to sign on as the new Ranee for the movie. I hope you can act as well as you sing or else I will have to do this all over again with one of my usual co-stars.”

The two of us were taken to a smaller soundstage where about twenty dancers were waiting for us. The story line was that Anudeep and I would enter the main set on an elephant and dismount. We would then dance with the other dancers and finally come together and kiss; that being the moment the raga stops. I could see how it would work from then as there would be dialogue as the couple go into the palace and then into another set scene. I would only have to dance with the other dancers for about three minutes and they then set me to learning the steps.

During that time I learned a lot about myself and what my new body was expected to do.

Marianne G 2021