Day 108 - Bollywood in Budgee Springs - Chapter 5.2 (2075 words)

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Bollywood in Budgee Springs

Chapter 5 (part 2)

Max leads Ash and his crew to the Whistle and inside the room has been set up to welcome the team from the movie studio. The hall is decked out in decorations made from crepe paper and a ‘Hooray for Bollywood’ banner is made of cut out letters across the mini stage.

The room is beginning to fill with people as the word has spread and the residents made their way to the Whistle to welcome their guests. There is an excited buzz in the room and there is general excitement amongst the women, while most of the men though have a beer in one hand and the other in a pants pocket. The various bar tables have been set up with food and assorted treats for the welcoming committee, a coffee and tea station at the rear table near the bar. There are sponge cakes dusted with icing sugar, fresh strawberries and fruits from various gardens and hothouses, since most produce was grown locally, and cucumber sandwiches on tiered plates and the country party staple of lamingtons.

The townsfolk are fidgeting and still not suite sure what to expect as as they all turn to face the opening door as the Mayor holds the double doors wide for the group of about twenty people to come in. The door swung open Ash comes through and cranes his head around to view the room and the reception that awaits his team. His team follow his lead, the more experienced of the crew eyeing the food as foreign to them as the country itself had once been. Here they were stepping into a town that never seemed to have progressed from the middle of the twentieth century it did not match their expectations set by the metropolis of Sydney or any of the other foreign shoots they had attended before, where things were more perfunctory and less like a trip in time.

The Crew watch for a cue from their Director and Producer, Ash who himself is waiting for a sign from Max what is happening next, but after the long drive through the dust bowl that surrounded the town's round in the morning tea tables stacked with quaint anachronistic treats was a like a craft services nirvana to them, dangled just out of reach awaiting the permission to descend like gulls.

Kiran, Ash's assistant and second unit director flanks her boss while Hardeep the choreographer stands off to the side slightly, managing to appear aloof and imperious with a mere tilt to one hip in the rigidity of his pose. Ash is in a very nice suit, a businessman more than an artists today, whereas Kiran is wearing casual western clothing; functional and ready to get to work. Hardeep is wearing sleek, chic and slinky clothing. He has a dancers lithe movements in every single motion that his body makes. Every step he takes looks as carefully placed and chosen by a choreogrpaher, which of course he is by trade and his every muscle and sinew in motion is there to make sure everyone knows this.

As a trio they walk up the middle of the crowd behind the Mayor who is taking the small step to the short stage. The crowd is fascinated by Hardeep, a man whose carriage looks like someone miming a panthers creep but naturally rather than over the top. The women in the room are fascinated by this man, who radiates something, picked up by the men as well who aren't able to make much of what it could mean.

As the Mayor takes the stage he makes a gesture to the guests and starts a round of applause that erupts and grows beyond merely polite to warmly welcoming. Ash bows gracefully, then putting his hands together and bows again in thanks before taking the Mayors offered handshake and no one can hear Max telling him that their little movie is welcomed to Budgee Springs.

“Namsaste, Thank you, Mr Clarke, sir. Or what do I call you? Your worship?” It is an honest enquiry, a little unsure of the local customs but it gets a decent laugh from the crowd and a blush from Max. Ash sees instantly that there is some tension there and he makes a mental note to not get either the town nor his new ally off side if he can, local politics are never fun for visitors only staying a few weeks at a time.

Max restarts his greeting now that there is less noise in the room. “On behalf of the people of Budgee Springs we welcome you ...”In the middle of the sentence he loses his way, but soldiers on awkwardly “... to uh - Budgee Springs. We hope that your movie works out.. well and that we can be of help to you and your crew.” Max indicated the centre stage “Would you like to say a few words perhaps?”

“Sure, uh.. thank you Budgee Springs, On behalf of the crew and myself I must say you’ve made us all feel very welcome, thank you. This is such a warm and friendly reception, I must say we are hardly used to being treated so well. It is refreshing to come to a town and not just jump straight into business but to meet the people, like yourselves that make a town what it is.”

The audience claps politely, the reception and treatment of guests was the polite and mannerly thing to do, but it had been so long since a delegation of this size had landed in the town they felt this was the opportunity to spend all the accumulated good will towards visitors in one Karmic burst.

“Thank you do much for your welcome, for the food, which I must say my Crew are eyeing up after such a long and dusty drive here. I am truly amazed that such civilised people live this far away from … anywhere and I am from India, so I know what I am talking about!” This too gets a laugh from the residents, the similarities between the small towns in the dry deserted parts of India and Australia were likely to stop there, but for now it was amusing to compare themselves to a country they knew so little about.

“The set crew will be working on the locations and raising the sets, the cameras and the lighting equipment, initially just beyond the end of the main street. Please don't be alarmed at the amount of rigging and machinery they are setting up, they are well practised at keeping the interruption to a minimum. The wind machines will be only on when we absolutely need them, and we'll give you as much warning as we can for the “Storm scene” which will be shooting as soon at the end of the second week.”

The mention of wind machines and storm scenes got the audience chattering amongst themselves, it was beginning to become a real movie, with the glamorous allure of the Silver Screen infecting them. Even Charlie was starting to feel a little warmer towards the idea, perhaps his son had pulled something off here after all?

Ash continued“ They are working hard for the next forty eight hours to get things ready for the cast, who will arrive in a few days. Now speaking of the cast, Aamir Patel and Manisha Khandah will be joining us and will be starring in this movie!” He beamed and waited for a reaction that did not arrive, and he clicks his fingers as he realises that the town will have little appreciation for the actors and traditions of Indian Cinema. He wonders how much the Mayor has told them about the project and what they plan to do, but that is not a problem for dealing with in the welcoming party so he moves on quickly. “You probably will not know who these people are, but to people in my country, they are stars that would have the town crawling with photographers and paparazzi trying to get snapshots and spoilers into their film magazines and gossipy newspapers.” There is a slight bitterness to this sentence that he cannot quite hide.

“But don't worry if you don't know who they are, that is one of the reasons that we have come to this lovely town, so far from everything and so far away from all the nonsense that goes with big studios and all their big city ideals. This movie is being made by people who love movies, for people who love to watch movies. We are a production that you would call “ A Little Battler”!” That gets a cheer from the residents, Ash's research on how to make friends with locals and how to close the gap between unapproachable and walled off movie folk and the down to earth but relatively rigid senior citizens of Budgee Springs is paying off already. He wanted to use every single person in the town for something where he could.

It was a win-win situation for him, he needed them to want to help the movie succeed and they wanted the promotion and the income for the town. There was so much more at stake than anyone knew, more than he had shared with the friendly but obviously inexperienced Mayor Max Clarke to get the deal. He just needed to get them through the next few weeks, and by then they would be ingrained and the whole thing would work, it would have to work, so much was riding on it.

Ash hoped it would, hoped it really would pay off or he dreaded the alternative so much that he had to have the hope to focus on instead.

“We often use the crew to do a bunch of walk on roles and bit parts in the movie, but by the looks of your fine townsfolk we could have a number, if not all of you appearing in the movie,” this gets a small murmur of contention from the men neat the bar, “But of course you'll be paid the appearance fees, definitely of course you will!.” This gets an even louder murmur but it has changed to appreciation from those who saw the opportunity for the community over the ones who did not want to join in, or not be filmed joining in. Of course not everyone has to be on camera, and we could really use some of your expertise choosing appropriate locations and seeing some of the amazing sights that you Mayor spoke so eloquently of?”

There is some more reaction to this, the tide of opinion has turned quite positive.

“From this afternoon onwards Kiran, Hardeep and I will be holding auditions to see what you can do if you want to be a Bollywood star! Are there any questions?”

A hand shoots up from near the bar and Max does his best to hide the cringe he feels undcer his skin.

“You do realise that we don’t speak Indian?” It's from one of Charlie's cronies, Carl Bromfield.

Ash laughs as he answers “Neither do we.!” He smiles and explains “Actually no language in India is “Indian”; they speak one or more of the twenty-five languages on the sub-continent of India. The two main ones we'll use on set are Gujarat and Hindustani.”

Ella piped up with a sharp voice that put an end to whatever Carl had thought of as a follow up “I told you so Carl Bromfield” and a thump from the bartenders wife to Carl put an end to that line of questioning.

“Most, if not all of the dialogue is recorded post production back in Madras. The actors will re do their lines to the scenes we’ve shot and at the same time other actors will dub yours and some of our main cast's lines into many languages for the wider country release. It is a bit of a tradition, on other movies, where Europeans, or in your cases Australians or Aussies” Ash attempts an Ocker accent but just manages to sound less Indian than he did already and more English, “When they have lines the actors would say ‘gobbledegook, gobbledegook’ for as long as necessary to make it look more realistic.”

Ash overacts and mimes ‘gobbledegook, gobbledegook’ with an big head-wobble and there is a significant laugh from the audience.