Rishi Vohra - HiFi in Bollywood

DISCLAIMER

This is a work of fiction. All characters and situations described in this book are a product of the authors imagination. Any resemblance to any known person or event is coincidental.

Published by Jaico Publishing House
A-2 Jash Chambers, 7-A Sir Phirozshah Mehta Road
Fort, Mumbai - 400 001
www.jaicobooks.com

Rishi Vohra

HIFI IN BOLLYWOOD
ISBN 978-81-8495-648-1

First Jaico Impression: 2015

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

For
Nikki, Mia and Zara

Acknowledgments

Heartfelt thanks to all the wonderful people in the film industry for their encouragement and support during my time there. Some of the names that come to mind are Sohail Khan (who also gave me my first break), Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Shimit Amin, Prahlad Kakar, Kabir Bedi, BuntyWalia, Vikas Kapoor, Daboo Malik, and so many more who have inspired me.

A special thanks to Salman Khan for kindly consenting to his special appearance in the book.

A warm thank you to Hrithik Roshan and John Abraham, for their unconditional support and kind words.

For their unwavering support and love, my family of friends Pratik Thakore (for his tireless efforts in creating and maintaining my official website), Pravin Khairnar, Gautham K. Sharma, Disha Reuben Dass, Shishir Gupta, Winifred Arbeiter, Amit Bharadwaj, Harshal Setalvad, Vivek Tibrewala, Nimish & Sonali Arora, Vikrant Trilokekar, Sanmeet Kaur, Siddharth Haldipur, Sameet Keswani, Rahul Patil, Ashish Nangia, Umang Khosla, Ravee Jaiswal, & Zia Nath.

I am grateful to my extended family The Aroras Subhash, Arvinda, Adil & Pratibha and Rita Paul for always being positive and encouraging.

And to Nikki for always being my first critic and editor, and whose love and support has always kept me anchored to the things that really matter.

And above all, I thank Akash Shah and Sandhya Iyer at Jaico for believing in me once again. A special mention to Nita Satikuwar (for the awesome cover) and Vijay Thakur. And above all, deep gratitude and heartfelt thanks to my wonderful editor Srija Basu for keeping me on track.

In the book, HiFi is used interchangeably with Bollywood' to refer to the Hindi Film Industry that produces unique, entertaining, and colorful films and is one of a kind the world over.

The term HiFi came to my attention through a Twitter post by Cine Star & Humanitarian Salman Khan in which he suggested and advocated it as a more appropriate name to refer to the Hindi Film Industry.

Rishi Vohra

You can fail at what you dont want. So you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.

Jim Carrey

Prologue

Dear Vanita, sorry for this abrupt message. I dont think well meet for a while. Call me a confused person or a man driven by a strong resolve. Call it an impulsive reaction or a mans inextinguishable urge to follow his passion. Call it the Hindi Film Industry or Bollywood either way, its where I want to be

PART I

BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA USA

USA

Salman Khan emerges from the make-up van and walks straight up to me. A respectful silence descends on the film set as he wades through it in his signature cool swagger. I get up from the Directors chair behind the video monitor and greet him as he approaches. Whats the shot, Rayhan? he asks casually.

Bhai, were going to shoot a mid-shot of you. If you could just wear the suit that was sent to your van...

So how much of me will come in the shot? Salman asks.

I give my stomach a light karate chop. Till here, Bhai.

Then I dont need to change out of my jeans. Ill just wear the shirt and suit jacket.

I clear my throat. Actually, Bhai you need to wear the entire outfit.

Salman raises his eyebrows questioningly.

You wont feel the character if you wear just half the outfit even if the camera doesnt see it" I continue, hoping I dont sound patronizing.

Salman puts an arm on my shoulder and nods approvingly. Thats why I like working with you, Rayhan" his deep voice cuts through the humid studio air. Youre the best director...

The sudden blaring of a horn outside my window snapped me out of my dream.

I had just commenced my job hunt. Barely a few months out of college, I was hoping to snag at least one interview. The fact that I wasn't ambitious about making it in the corporate world didn't help. And the ongoing recession didn't make it any easier either. America was slipping into it deeper by the day.

Movies. Movies. Movies. That's all I ever thought about. The colorful widescreen images, set in motion by a script, music and actors, never ceased to dominate my sense of self and transport me into a different world together.

Ever since that video camera came into my hands when I was a teenager, my world changed. Everything around me became a story. I visualized all incidents around me as how they would appear onscreen. I had grown up on a staple diet of Hindi movies and had long decided that I wanted to be a filmmaker in the Hindi Film Industry.

Filming visuals in motion brought me so much joy that I took to reading up voraciously on the subject and pursued it avidly as a hobby. Later on, I downloaded a film editing software - Adobe Premier - on my PC and would edit any video footage that I could shoot or download. By the time I was done with my 12th standard, I felt both ready and eager to pursue a Bachelors degree in Film.

I wanted to spend my life behind a film camera, while the world in front of it moved to my directions, personified feelings in accordance to my script and danced to my tunes. That was where I belonged and the only place I ever wanted to be.

But at the time, my father thwarted my Bollywood dreams by insisting that I begin the application process to US universities to "make my life." He had it all planned out for me. I was to do a Bachelors degree in Finance, settle into a corporate job, buy a house and car on loan and live the American dream.

When I showed no initiative, his loud voice started taking on a more belligerent and restless tone. He would display anger at the smallest of things, from the accidental banging of a door, to my using the telephone. His irritation at my mere presence became so rampant that I had no choice but to start the application process.

At the time, I remembered my mother smiling down at me gently from her permanent home - a garlanded picture frame. I wondered, had she been alive, would she have let me be on my own in the big bad world at the age of 18? I realized that fathers were more intent on having their sons live their own unrealized dreams. So I reluctantly left for the US and put myself through four years of what I deemed torture.

However, I never let go of my dream. I took weekend film classes at Berkeley City College to pursue my passion. The courses weren't enough to educate me completely on film but adequate enough to provide me with the basics of film production. I understood that real film education could only be acquired by working for a few years in a film unit.

It was tough to juggle assignments from two different majors and universities at the same time. So I had to relegate one of them to the backseat while focusing completely on the other. As a result, I passed my film courses with flying colors while my grades from my Business courses were nothing to write home about. My father did lecture me about my low scores, but consoled himself that a degree from UC Berkeley would suffice in plugging me into the corporate world.