On 28 January 2009, got a frantic mail from Sk , asking him to help out with some procedural aspects of a film project he and Rahul had got. i just called up the number mentioned in the mail- the Bangalore ASI number and got some information for him…and I think from that day on was inducted into the GLP India team. Next, I found myself at a meeting with Sk, Rahul, Ruhie and Akash at Candies, Bandra discussing what needed to be done. Ruhie surprised, rather shocked all of us by telling her that her “uncle” who she was going to talk to about the shooting permit fees was Mr Subbarao, the RBI governor!!!!!The next few days were helping them make the budget and the proposal, I was pleasantly surprised to see my name as co-producer!!!!! Deepa Bhat, who had NOTHING to do with movies except watching them….was actually ( on paper) a co- producer!!! Until then, my idea of a producer was one who only funds a film, realized for the first time that a producer’s function encompasses much more!!!!
Well then on, it was crossing fingers, and everything else( if its practically possible) every few days-for the GLP proposal to be approved by the GLP team, and getting a waiver of the permit fees. First we had a lot of hope with the waiver, thanks to Mrs Subbarao being a friend of Ms .Anshu, the Delhi authority who has the power to waive off our fees. But apparently the day we sent our proposal , was her last in the Delhi jurisdiction. First we were to shoot on 26th, but because of personal constraints of many of us and of course, we hadn’t gotten the basic approval from the GLP team yet. They had some questions for us about the subject and some production issues and finally last weekend after working our cogs around every conceivable obstacle, on ( Saturday), 21st February 2009, we got our approval( not that there was even an iota of doubt of an otherwise!!!)l!!
And then we had to wait for the tardy response of ASI Bangalore and our various”contacts” at ASI Delhi to finally get permission for the shoot…which turned out to be so tiring and time consuming and irritating….Rahul was so very tensed…I still remember his face when I met him Monday at Meghna’s place, 2 days before he was set to leave for Hampi. He was so anxious and tired and waiting to DO something, and GET something done!! We were waiting for Tuesday when we would finally get our permission letter.
So then I start calling up ASI on Tuesday 11a.m onwards- and all they say every time is that there is no electricity so they are unable to send the email…and then finally at noontime-Rahul mails..and the permission letter says that we are allowed to take “Photographs” at the specified 3 monuments!!! Am sure that at that time-the three of us are staring into our computers cursing What the heck!!! we went through all these for the past few months for PHOTOGRAPHS!!!!! Well and then another day of calling up ASI Bangalore every 15 minutes only to be disappointed and listen to the frustrated receptionist every time. Finally we spoke to Mr. Patil who asked us to email him YET again!!! We did so, and called back in another 15 minutes-he wasn’t at desk…and so on .The receptionist was so flustered …she was like HOW many times have you spoken to the veryyyy busy ASI honcho!!!, and she went on to tell us that a CAMERA can shoot only photographs. we had to take on the arduous task to tell her that a CAMERA is of two types, one of which shoots videos!!!
Anyway finally we got the word from the ASI honcho that we will have no problems shooting and we got the number of the ASI chief, Hampi to be contacted in case of any problems. Phew!!!
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