By: Joginder Tuteja, IndiaFM
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
The Train releases today and like majority of films being churned out of Bollywood, even this dramatic thriller by Hasnain Hyderabadwala and Raksha Mistry has been shot abroad in a major way. Set in Bangkok, the film has The Train itself being one of the major characters in the film apart from Emraan Hashmi, Geeta Basra and Sayali Bhagat.
In an exclusive conversation, Raksha Mistry talks to Joginder Tuteja about the reason behind choosing Bangkok as the location for the film, the hassles faced by the crew while shooting in the city and the intrinsic fun that the city brought with it throughout the shooting tenure.
As narrated by Raksha:
When it comes to shooting interiors, no wonder Mumbai is the best place to be in. But then it could well be the biggest nightmare when it comes to outdoors. Permissions that one needs from government officials, police etc. and procuring the right documents could well be a nightmare.
This is not all! If you have stars shooting in open, it becomes quite unmanageable especially when it comes to Indian crowds. Then if you try to create an outdoor set, it but naturally looks all so artificial. This is when one thinks about shooting in a foreign location.
Another advantage is that once you have the stars with you outside the country, the issue of them working in shifts for different films vanishes. Things like commitment, focus and productivity only follows! In nutshell, you get maximum work done in minimum time.
Now coming to why we decided to shoot in Bangkok. As you know about the film's story, it is about a man [Emraan] who explores love outside home in a lonely land. He is in a city which is full of hustle-bustle, where people don't really have time for another while to add to the mayhem things are a little messy.
Moreover, the city that we were looking at had to have some bit of India in an Asian city. The story demanded that the protagonist gets attracted to Indian-ness in a woman which he finds in Geeta.
Bangkok seemed ideal because of reasons mentioned as above and also the cinematic appeal that it brings along with it. High rise buildings with trains running in the sky was an obvious attraction.
Also, to compliment that urbaneness of the entire situation, an Asian culture deep inside the city only helped the story move further. When it came to beaches, Pattaya won hands down. You have to admire it for its sheer cleanliness.
The city has that enigmatic quality about it to either accept or reject you; the decision is mainly yours on how you want the city to behave with you. Net net, it is nothing different from what probably Mumbai does to you.
I also have to mention that the liberal tourism policy further helps the cause. Most of the departments/people we met were quite open minded and gave us a helping hand throughout the film's shooting tenure.
I remember that we left for the shoot when the coup had just happened. No doubt we were doubtful about how would we be able to have the shoot. We got in touch with the local coordinator and we were assured that things would go as planned with all the necessary permissions though a few restrictions were certainly put. What we realized eventually was that the military had changed but the rules hadn't. It was business as usual eventually.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
The Train releases today and like majority of films being churned out of Bollywood, even this dramatic thriller by Hasnain Hyderabadwala and Raksha Mistry has been shot abroad in a major way. Set in Bangkok, the film has The Train itself being one of the major characters in the film apart from Emraan Hashmi, Geeta Basra and Sayali Bhagat.In an exclusive conversation, Raksha Mistry talks to Joginder Tuteja about the reason behind choosing Bangkok as the location for the film, the hassles faced by the crew while shooting in the city and the intrinsic fun that the city brought with it throughout the shooting tenure.
As narrated by Raksha:
When it comes to shooting interiors, no wonder Mumbai is the best place to be in. But then it could well be the biggest nightmare when it comes to outdoors. Permissions that one needs from government officials, police etc. and procuring the right documents could well be a nightmare.
This is not all! If you have stars shooting in open, it becomes quite unmanageable especially when it comes to Indian crowds. Then if you try to create an outdoor set, it but naturally looks all so artificial. This is when one thinks about shooting in a foreign location.
Another advantage is that once you have the stars with you outside the country, the issue of them working in shifts for different films vanishes. Things like commitment, focus and productivity only follows! In nutshell, you get maximum work done in minimum time.
Now coming to why we decided to shoot in Bangkok. As you know about the film's story, it is about a man [Emraan] who explores love outside home in a lonely land. He is in a city which is full of hustle-bustle, where people don't really have time for another while to add to the mayhem things are a little messy.
Moreover, the city that we were looking at had to have some bit of India in an Asian city. The story demanded that the protagonist gets attracted to Indian-ness in a woman which he finds in Geeta.
Bangkok seemed ideal because of reasons mentioned as above and also the cinematic appeal that it brings along with it. High rise buildings with trains running in the sky was an obvious attraction.
Also, to compliment that urbaneness of the entire situation, an Asian culture deep inside the city only helped the story move further. When it came to beaches, Pattaya won hands down. You have to admire it for its sheer cleanliness.The city has that enigmatic quality about it to either accept or reject you; the decision is mainly yours on how you want the city to behave with you. Net net, it is nothing different from what probably Mumbai does to you.
I also have to mention that the liberal tourism policy further helps the cause. Most of the departments/people we met were quite open minded and gave us a helping hand throughout the film's shooting tenure.
I remember that we left for the shoot when the coup had just happened. No doubt we were doubtful about how would we be able to have the shoot. We got in touch with the local coordinator and we were assured that things would go as planned with all the necessary permissions though a few restrictions were certainly put. What we realized eventually was that the military had changed but the rules hadn't. It was business as usual eventually.
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