O Maria!!

Last year in june, dont remember which day, I was just chilling at home. (Was unemployed at that time.) Suddenly a friend of mine  called me. -The same one whom I have mentioned in my last post "Writing" that "She's a good critic!" She told me about some audition of a konkani movie "O Maria" that was gonna be held in Kala Academy. And insisted me to go for the same. I spontaneously replied- "Why not?? Sure!!" Of course, she was gonna come with me too.

I would like mention one important thing here.. Just like me, she's lazy too!! We make a good team.. ;-) So, the audition was gonna start at 3.30pm, but we went there at 5.00pm! Luckily, it was not over yet. When we entered, a man asked us.. "audition??". We just nodded our heads. Come on, what can one expect from a person having his mind in nervous state?? (There was no way that i could just say. "yeah baby, lets get started.. Bring it on!")

Moving on, both of us went near the stage. There was a guy standing at the podium, just next to the stage. He wrote own our names and contact details. Then an elderly person came walkin towards us and after discussin something with one more person, he handed over a piece of paper to both of us and said, "prepare yourself with these dialogues." (I am using words 'person' because at that time we didnt know their names. And to be a little honest, I didn't even know how the director Mr. Talak looks like. He was there, but i couldn't recognize him. :-I) We took the pages, went and sat on a chair and started 'preparing' ourselves! She had got one dialogue having 5-6 sentences in it and i got a page with four dialogues. Just small one liners.

After a while, the person who had given us pages, shouted from where he was, "Are u ready?". Actually i was not, but from my experience in school and college i had learned one thing. When the examiner calls in for viva, just go in. Don't ask them to give you some more time. Its of no use!!! So, i instantly got up and went to the stage.

There was a camera facing me. The scenario was like in movies where our Hero is tied to a chair and the terrorists plan to interrogate him with a high definition camera  looking at him with just one big eye!!! The only difference here was that the people around me were not the terrorists and I was not the HERO! :P

I said all my dialogues, gave the required expressions and i was done. Then Mr. Talak directed me to go to a lady. I went, she asked me my shirt size, pant size and wrote it down. And my part in the auditions was over. My friend was still waiting for her turn. She had been called before but she just thought that she was not ready. So, she preferred waiting. (She hadn't learned anything from her school and college experience! Dumb!!) After some time i finally succeeded in teaching her my experience..! ;) And she agreed to face it! Frankly speaking, she was a little more nervous than i was. This ended up in she taking a little more time to finish with her auditions!

After this, we came home and continued with our day - to - day routine. After a few weeks, i got a call from an unknown number. I answered it.. It was Mr. Rajendra Talak on the other side. He asked me, "the shoot will start on 21st, u'll be there na?".. That was one of the best things i had heard in my life!! I am never gonna forget it. I said to him, "yes 'sir'.. I'll surely be there.." He told me that his assistant was gonna call me later some day to fix the dates, and he hung up the phone. My face was like a boy who gets a call from his college principal and tells him that he stood 1st in his class!!! :-) Not to mention that my friend was also selected to act in the same movie!

The shooting started. I had a 10 day shooting schedule. It was fun. And that was the time when i actually came to know how a movie is made. Got to learn lots of things. The shooting was over, the post production was completed and the movie was screened at the International Film Festival of India. I walked on the RED CARPET!!!!! Went in the theater and saw it! Saw myself on the big screen!!! For about 10-15 mins!! I was damn happy. But the only thing that made me feel a little awkward was, there's no my voice in the film. Some one else has dubbed for my voice. That was the only sort of 'disappointment'!! Imagine you are speaking and suddenly you hear a different voice coming out of your throat!! How would that sound???

Anyways, that didn't and it still doesn't bother me so much. What, i feel important is, that Talak sir gave me a chance to act in his film!! And this film" O Maria" created a history by completing 25 weeks in Inox, Goa. First film ever to do so!!!!!

I like to give my sincere thanks to Talak sir and his whole team for all the things they did for me!! (Well, if they read this post, let me say "forgive me if i have said anything wrong. Coz if i have, i know i must have said in unknowingly".) Hoping to work with you in ur next venture too, Sir!! :-) ;-)