Zoom with a View
“It was a big challenge to shoot this film with all the provisions and a small crew,” said Rao who was determined to shoot at actual locations and on real moving trains. “We went on what my DOP (director of photography) called ‘too many recces’ because we wanted to get that authenticity,” recalled Rao.
Part of the challenge was the decision to set Laapataa Ladies in 2001. “It’s far enough in the past for it to look different, but it can’t look very different, you know?” said Rao. “We found our villages in MP (Madhya Pradesh) but we didn’t find our stations. Finally we found the stations in Nashik district near Shirdi. Murti and Pateela — which are fictional stations in Nirmal Pradesh. We were all set. Life was looking good.”
And then Omicron raised its ugly head just as the team of Laapataa Ladies was about to start their first schedule, which had all the “hard stuff”. “Around the 3rd of January, we leave for Shirdi. We’re going to start shooting on the 5th,” said Rao. “Me and my producer Tanaji Dasgupta were in one car and Vikash Nowlakha, the DOP, was going to follow in another car. We were all really happy because we’d all done our RT-PCR and whatnot. All clear. While we’re on the way, Vikash calls and says ‘Boss, I’m positive’.”
Even now, the random unfairness of that moment seems to rankle Nowlakha. “Just before the shoot I was going to go on a surfing trip to get energised. Everyone told me to not take that risk because I might get COVID. It was the safe thing to do. So, I cancelled my trip, stayed home, and I STILL GOT COVID,” said Nowlakha.
Shooting on a tight budget, Rao couldn’t afford delays. After some fretting and hand-wringing, she turned to Srinivas Achary, who had been Nowlakha’s assistant in the past. They called Achary on the 3rd, he agreed, they sent him the script on the 4th; and he reached Nashik by the night of the 4th. “Srinu had barely read the script and had to shoot these moving trains and multiple characters,” said Rao, remembering the first day of shooting. “He had no idea who was which. He was such a genius, such a great collaborator. He was a lifesaver, I mean, in proper, practical terms,” said Rao.
Achary and Nowlakha’s history of working together held Laapataa Ladies in good stead. “If I have my eye on the viewfinder and I put my hand out, Srinu knows exactly what to put in it,” said Nowlakha. “It is a very precious relationship. There was a lot of panic initially, but I knew that what I can do, Srinu can do. We both see things exactly the same way. We have both grown together in the last 20 years. We both light the same way, we respond to things the same way, we walk on a set together, and we both have exactly the same idea of what to do.”
When asked about his experience shooting that first schedule of Laapataa Ladies, Achary said, “I think I was destined to be a part of this film.” Achary stayed on as the second camera on the shoot, but before that, he had to try and bring to the screen what Nowlakha had imagined. “We were trying to get the internet on the railway station so that we could show Vikash the takes on Zoom because he was sitting in a blanket with a fever, shivering just contributing whatever he could,” said Rao. “Because of our connection, after the first couple of days I knew what Vikash wanted. I would show him the shots at the end of the day and it would work,” said Achary.