Would you prefer to be a prostitute or a witness to a murder? That was what Julie and I were asking ourselves upon arrival at our Bolloywood Film set.
True to our word, we showed up about half-past seven at Lepolds to scope out the other foreingers that had been recruited for the shoot. We had agreed that if it looked shady we would sneak out of the resturant and run home.
After waiting nervously for about 40 mins, we decide that it was all a joke, leave the resturant, turn the corner and walk smack into a whole crew of tourists looking around uncomfortably. This has gotta be it! We are asked if we are here for the Bollywood movie and after confirmation are shffled across the street to wait for our transportation- a glamed up taxi complete with blue lighting, velor interior, a disco ball and Indian hip hop playing.
We arrive at the shoot and it looks strangelly what like what we had imagined a typical set to look like. Jules and I think this is fabulous and after spending a bit of time chatting with our fellow extras (quite an eclectic group- two English guys, a Mexican named Victor, two Danish girls, a crazy Bollywood vetern / chi addict from San Fran who reminded us of Danny Stewart , a couple from Ubekistan of ne of the more obscure Jans/Stans, bunch of German guys who had to bolt mid-shoot and crazy girl from Finland who was recovering from a motercycle accident in Goa) we start exploring!
As we are cruising around we notice an overwhelming amount of strip clubs, Erotic book shops, and large windows complete with red lights...hmmm, by action movie did they mean a porn? I mention to Julie that it looks like a cheesy version of the red light district in Amsterdam. The director confirms my suspicion:clarifies: We're on location in the red light district in Amsterdam for the shooting...its an action/love story...typical Bollywood plot...
After this discovery, we started to become uneasy about the nature of our roles in the movie- a number of girls dissappeared into the dressing room only to return dressed as call-girls. SACRY! Just when we were starting to get really doubtful we were ushered by a female stage manager and instructed to wait on the set to receive direction for our first appearance- thankfully we were to play tourists visiting Amsterdam and we were able to wear our street clothes!
We made our acting debut in several different scenes, mainly involving us witnessing gun fights and sprinting down the road while a police car chased us and diving into a deserted porn shop with our acting partners. I was paired with one of the Germans named Michael (who was sporting a head injury due to a dehydration -related blackout on a train) and Julie was with our hot Mexican friend Victor.
The night passed fairly quickly with all the extras drinking chi, exchanging travel tales, and getting yelled at by the stage managers who seemed to have an extremely hard time deciding whether we were required in the shot or not!
As the night continued we had the opportunity to see how they filmed close-ups (the overacting was outrageous) and how they edit the shots into the finished products that we see on screen. It was all very cool, but as dawn began to break and the shoot began to wrap up we began to tire. My fatigue was displayed when as Julie and I were resting on the curb in down town Amsterdam I leaned back into a neon window frame and electrocuted myself (obviously not seriously or I'd be writing this journal entry from a cafe in a Indian hospital)! While I was away nursing my injury and getting some more chi an indian set manager came over and warned Julie to be careful of the lights- they are dangerous!
Thankfully, when I returned, they rounded us up, told us we were done for the night and then lined us up in single file to take our e-mail addresses and pay us our 500 rupees!
As dawn was breaking, we said our bittersweet goodbyes to the other budding stars and then shared a cab back to Colaba with an American couple.
We dragged ourselves through the gate and up the stairs of our guest house to get some sleep and dream about stardom!
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