7th
And finally after months of deliberations and building up the team, running after permissions and ensuring that EVERYONE can make it to Hampi and deciding what all equipment etc is to be taken , it’s finally the day of the shoot!!! It’s 4:35 am , and Meghna and I haven’t woken up despite of 4 alarms that we had set. We wake up to the guys anxiously knocking the door. We quickly change and leave. Outside Akshat, we begin our journey with the ceremonial breaking of the coconut. We proceed to Rama guest house and at the bottom of the stairs , start fixing up the steady cam and setting up the camera. We stealthily proceed upstairs. Muttu is fast asleep (as expected) , the streets are dimly lit, with sleepy cows sitting all around the place(thank god there are no barking dogs!!)It still amazes me how clean the streets are. We realise that we don’t have a spare battery. Rahul and I go back to Netra guest house (where the boys are put up) to get the battery. We have to unceremoniously wake up poor Akash. We get the battery and head back. The cows are still asleep. We can see the village slowly waking up. People are performing their morning ablutions and whichever corner we round , we can see Virupakhsa standing tall in the background(no multiple storey buildings to hamper the view here you see!!)At around 5:30 am, right on dot, Muttu wakes up. He neatly folds his mattress and proceeds to perform his morning everythings. Then he goes down to have his morning cuppa of freshly brewed tea. There are surprisingly quite a few number of people at the tea cart, including a few tourists, and its not even 6 am !!!!! Muttu then awaits his customer for the day at a pre decided place. Around 6 am, Satya ( a French tourist) walks in and we start to walk towards our first monument for the day- The sunrise point on Matanga hill. Our first change of tapes occurs. We move through the slightly stirring streets of Hampi bazaar. Few tourists are mulling around, and quite a few dogs…Rahul is jumpy , as usual(he doesn’t really dig animals too much- and certainly not barking ones!!!)We continue to the outskirts of Hampi bazaar and start our climb. Here Sk takes the camera-he's got a strong foothold over em rocks you see:)and the confidence to run uphill as well.We have to whistle to Muttu and Satya and ask them to walk slower….phew…the climb ain’t difficult…but I think it just showed many of us how out of shape we really are! Anyway we continue upwards with a fellow tourist-“Momma” for company. We go and wait at the highest point of this hill. The view is breathtakingly overwhelming ( I know these are clichéd words, but one HAS to go to Hampi to see what I mean, no camera will be able to capture the place)- more of my favorite rocks of course. I can see the famous sister stones(famous in the climbing fraternity especially) ,Vitthala temple, Acyutraya temple, the Tungabhadra river, and many more of the hundreds of monuments that dot the landscape. I still cannot believe I am staring at my beloved Hampi…its at the is moment that it really sinks in ..i AM in HAMPI!!!!!!! There are a couple of dozen of tourists- all sitting ready with their cameras-to TRY capture the beautiful sunrise in their cameras- a memory to take home, to show around, to frame, to muse over in times to come……Sk is jumping around with his camera- he is as fidgety and jumpy as the tens of monkeys prowling around. He’s looking for the perfect angles and pictures(He is an amazing photographer despite not having any professional training in the same. His angles are just marvelous). There is this little 4 day old monkey and its mother. When we look at the baby, the mother gently and protectively puts her hand on the little one and draws its close…it was such a touching scene, difficult to be orchestrated or practiced..mother’s love for her little one…..The sunrise comes- and doesn’t disappoint…the landscape becomes even more pretty and overwhelming….Sk tries to show some foreign tourists how to get that perfect shot(had to impress em bunch of gals after all!!) Finally Muttu and Satya move away from the sunrise point to savour the other beautiful monuments in the distance. While Satya is busy taking shots of the landscape, Muttu moves around, trying to sell postcards. He interacts with a German couple. And then proceeds to have tea and sell postcards to Momma. Meanwhile, Rahul and I start scrambling around to get the release forms signed from the German couple. This is probably when the first faux pas occurs. Rahul and I are standing talking to the Germans, when we see that on the opposite side, where Meghna is shooting, the camera pans towards us…we immediately duck,…and Meghna smiles…we were on camera!!!I think it’s the Global Lives T-shirts that made us so conspicuous. All day long, we are busy running around the camera, hiding behind pillars, ducking into the tall dry grass.By mi day, if we were ever found scrounging around for the rest of the team , some unknown local stranger would always point us in the right direction to the team, thanks to the t-shirts…..We see Ruhie, Vasappa and Omkar sitting down waiting for us. Anyway, so after cups of tea, we began our way down from the other side, towards the Achyutraya temple. The sun is out in full swing, out come the fake aviators:p..Akash is busy doing the “behind the scenes ”shoot. We enter the enclosure of the monument, where even the sun barely reaches..time to use Sk’s BIG torch light again……We continue our way, walking through the ruins…trying to keep in pace with Muttu and Satya, clicking beau snaps-group as well as profile pics,…we are so obsessed:d…we visit a Hanuman temple…..watch a poor monkey get electrocuted right outside the temple..isn’t that ironic!!
Well I realize that the very inexpensive elastic pants that I had bought the previous evening are climbing their way down my hips-time to go back and change I guess…So I head back while apparently these guys tour through Virupakhsa, Hampi Bazaar , and do multiple rounds of Hampi, when Muttu is busy meeting his friends and relatives. Then they rent out bikes and head to ganesh temple at Hemakutta hill. I go back , have a bath, change and the plat du jour having gone down the hatch( at New Shanti), accompanied by some fluid ounces of strengthening filter “cafee”, I was about to stretch, feeling lazy to head back into the hot sun , when I heard the telephone tootling ..these guys were near the guest house and were leaving….. Go with Madhu and Abhisek to Ganesh temple. Meghna’s parched. She hands over the steadycam and camera to Akash who then begins dutifully following the “subjects”.
We come down and go to another monument( don’t remember the name)…and when we come back on the road, hear of some commotion..which is settled by our own very irate and anxious producer sahib. We then get back to Hampi bazaar where, while Muttu converses with his friend and helps a French lady who speaks only 10% English(according to Muttu), the rest of us settle for the much awaited mid day chop . Producer sahib asks us to scatter from the scene and meet back not before 14:30 at Hemakutta Hill. Post lunch, Muttu , Sk, Bala, Meghna go with Muttu, Ruhie, suffering from migraine goes to have a nap and Abhishek ,Bala, Madhu and me go to tour the sights around Hampi- like a true tourist…Nagraj takes us around-to vitthala temple where we are mesmerized by the carvings and the chariot made of stone…we are in awe of the Vijaynagar dynasty who built up this wonderful place. We go to Queen’s Bath and loads of other places…but looking at the mammoth spread out structures, Madhu shakes his head and says- do you really wanna go?!?! So we get back to where Muttu is now having a nap to be told by a pensive and tensed Meghna that the laviliiers have showed up on us……so we try changing batteries and untwisting the wires. Finally we also put the V1 to rest and take out the hired Z1.Still the lapel mikes don’t work. Sk and Vishal go to Hospet to try get the mikes fixed. Meanwhile, luckily for us, Muttu has decided to take a nap. A leaf falls on his pants. Akash deftly zooms the camera onto his face and gets the ungainly leaf out of the way….shooting main yeh sab bhi karna padta hai!!! Sk and Vishal get back..and we try again…no luck. Finally Sk starts pondering on whether he can ask someone from Mumbai to come to Hampi to give us the mikes…because we have the interview shoot the next day for which the Laviliiers are undoubtedly necessary. Sk and Rahul go back. Muttu wakes up , and starts mulling around. But mostly he sits bored. We just do’t know what to do. Meanwhile Basappa arrives and says he knows a camera rental guy in hospet so Vishal and he head back toHospet to try renting out lapel mikes…after a while they too return back after having scouted around some 20 odd shops….meanwhile Sk and Rahul have sent out a frantic mail to David asking him to advise on what to do ….worse comes worse, they decide to come back in the last week of March to shoot the interview..SO much tension!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I guess sometimes its always better to give in to that uneasy feeling that something was likely to go off at any moment with a pop. Thing is with equipment, you never knew what it was going to do next or into what murky depths of soup it would carelessly plunge you.
Anyway, Muttu decide to go play cricket with his friends. Madhu takes over the camera. He and Akash follow Muttu to the grounds .Meanwhile we are sitting chatting and debating over the sound issue. Finally Meghna says that she doesn’t think the output will be drastically afftected .So we decide to let things be. One hour’s almost up and the conscious DOP realizes that Madhu and Akash don’t have tapes so Sk and I go to deliver the tapes to them. Then around 17:00 Satya comes on his bike…and they’re off to Sunset point..12 hours of the shoot already done..unbelievable!!!!!Ruhie, Madhu, Akash,Vishal , Abhishek and I are waiting for an auto to come…but we wait and wait and wait..apparently Nagraj hadn’t called for another auto. Madhu and Abhishek head back to their room.After a while and taking picks of the sunset etc, we head back to our rooms as well. I am extremely disappointed- I REALLY wanted to go watch the sunset from atop a hill(my fetish for “above sea level” areas just doesn’t go!!!)Anyway, after freshening up , Ruhie and I head to New shanty- to gulp something to drink. We make plans for the next day- we decide that come what may- we WILL go have a dip in the river……and take a ridein the boats..We decide to carry on with our meal as well..The guys call up- they want to join us too. Rahul is back and updates us- apparently Madhu, Meghna,Sk, Bala and Muttu have gone to Muttu’s village. We , as usual, sit in our favorite place and order. Everyone’s hungryyyy…Almost by the end of the meal the rest of the guys are back from Muttu’s village. Rahul and Akash go to take charge at Rama guest house where Muttu is while the rest settle down for dinner. Rahul absolutely refuses to go to sleep ..he insists that he is fresh and WILL stay up all night to ensure that the tape-changing goes on smoothly. So , finally it’s decided that Akash and Rahul will stay the night. The DOP does the settings in the camera and bidding goodnight, we move on to get our rest.Somewhere in the middle, we get a call from David…Sk goes back to Rama guest house.
We get back, take a bath and get to bed. Its been a longgggggggggggggggggg day…..
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