What’s stopping you?
- Savin Tuscano, Nandakhal
How to get into films? How to make my first film? How to become a film maker or be associated with films or in creative field? My son loves editing, acting, he/she is constantly on phone doing something or the other.
Today the major population of India is on smart phones and creating content, how can we set apart from the crowd?
Let me take you back to the day I started off, after getting my formal training in aspects of film making, I volunteered myself to be on a film set and to work for free, it was amazing to observe Ashutosh Rana and Tara Deshpande acting, but idea was not to get star struck, my interest was to see how the cinematographer was operating on the sets, how is he cutting the light and avoiding multiple shadows, how does a director speak to the art team, how he runs the set, how a costume stylist convinces the actors for a particular outfit, how action director and choreography team work? How to stand when an action scene is shot. I thought to myself, these lessons were never taught in any film school, my formal training started on a film set.
Joined as an intern in an ad film production house as a 3rd AD and promoted myself in 2 years to become the 1st AD, my mind was full of ideas and inputs but the best thing to do was to shut up and listen to the seniors and speak when you are asked to, on AD film set I learnt the most important skill of my life which is observation, what were we supposed to observe?
What brand of cigarette our client smoked? How many left in his packet? Quickly get one before it’s over. Is a lighter kept handy? Is there a clean ash tray? Never stand in the line for food first in lunch break, make sure you feed yourself and be the most invisible person on set, always be ready for the worst-case scenario because that’s the only confirmed thing that will happen, always go with solutions never go with a problem to the director. These observations and life lessons no school can teach but then, I think our Kupari upbringing was a major factor in this nature, because as kids we were responsible and trained in the village weddings about man manage-ment, how many guests are expected, how many kgs of mutton and chicken for 1200 guests, how many whiskey bottles and beer bottles? Who will bring the ice and chill the beers, what time to put them on the ice tub for it to be chilled by 7:45pm, who will go at the bride’s house? Who will distribute the vade and fugey? Who will get the cake? coordination with the decorator and the stage guy!
We Kuparis have done and learnt the production from very early stage! This is the best management course you can ever have! We are born jugadus!
So, on a set of 150 people never felt like a challenge, always had a smile on my face and an idea, jugad or a solution in my head on the film set, got promoted to be the associate director in two years.
I started cutting the extra film reel which was unused and made a good two-hour worth of raw stock and decided to shoot my first public service ad film idea which I had in my mind, the film was called Kho Kho and it became a sensation then for its punch lines, people in studios used to take VHS copies of it and show it to each other and have a great laugh over it, till date I am reminded of some lines.
One VHS tape landed in Yash Raj films and coincidentally they were looking for an Associate director for the AD cell department they were starting off, I did the interview, and the director Arjun Sablok liked my resume etc and when I mentioned him about the film Kho Kho, he immediately responded, oh you have made it? Man, we all cracked up here and have watched it on loop, that one effort landed me a job in India’s biggest studio YashRaj films.
On my very first AD film in YRF got to give dialogue cues to Amitabh Bachchan my purpose in life was fulfilled, that was the happiest day of my life and after that best three years of my life to have worked with the AB and many other super stars, I was part of Dhoom promotions and that’s where I met the director of Dhoom Mr. Sanjay Gadhvi who gave two biggest hits of Yashraj and when he decided to move out of YRF he offered me to join him as his associate director and that gave my career a huge boost, having worked with him gave me the confidence to direct my first feature film Vroom for Fox TV. Yashraj films director Arjun Sablok called me back with him as he was starting his own production house and he wanted me to be with his as his creative director, it was a big role.
One day we were called to UP to meet a Young Politician Mr. Akhilesh Yadav to direct a show for Saifai Mahotsav, I wrote the script for the show added the performances and booked all the best stars to perform for the event as the Saifai Mahotsav was cancelled the previous year due to differences between Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh. We made the show a huge success. Akhilesh mentioned of the state elections that were to follow in 2012 can we do something for him? We started brainstorming and took an initiative to shoot a film for Samajwadi party the idea was to show how the opposition party BSP was slow in their progress, the elephant vs cycle film was shot, we spent from our pockets and shot the film and presented it to Akhilesh Yadav, he loved the film.
We got the entire campaign for Samajwadi party elections, I spent an entire year to research the state of UP shot some amazing testimonials of the people of UP and the campaign made huge waves, Akhilesh became the youngest chief minister of UP we got featured in Outlook magazine and many other leading publications took notice of our work for Akhilesh, the next 5 years were spent in UP working on the government campaigns and infrastructure. The Metro, the Agra-Lucknow expressway was built in his tenure we made the Home of Taj campaign for UP tourism, and it was loved by one and all, in 2014 Modi wave took over and it washed away the entire nation and it will continue till 2029,
I directed my 2 animation films for Fabelizer and the AD film campaigns kept us busy, right from the launch of India Today news channel to Hindustan times Mint, Shree Om Steel brand campaign all this lead to the latest campaign for our very own Bassein Catholic Co-Operative bank which I feel is a very personal project as I am the customer and the agency both and I very well know where we should head with this, hence had an idea of a Brand Ambassador for BCCB bank, what does it take to make BCCB a 100 year old trustworthy bank, it’s the people and the customers and who is a better brand ambassador than the customer himself, hence the teaser and the reveal in Suvarta magazine this December. The customer testimonials to follow where they speak about their journey with the bank.
I personally feel that branding marketing or any product works when there is an emotional or a personal connect to it.
I am working as an educator with some institutions in Mumbai like Whistling woods international, ITM IDM, Manthan design school where I tell the students and also to the friends who ask for suggestions about how to be a filmmaker, editor, writer, actor etc.
I tell them what is stopping you? We live in the time and age where we are equipped with the best film making tools in our hands and the best audience, no one is waiting for us to give us breaks, if you want to be a all of the above start “READING” first it will open up your mind to the world only you can imagine, as it’s not influenced by anyone else.
The next step is to start posting on your social media, make your short films and post, write short articles, make small acting showreels we will realise where we stand, Covid kept everyone at home but it opened a new door for my creativity to make madlips videos where I wrote and dubbed short gags of 15 seconds and kept my fluids running, got great reviews from people who were in lockdown, where they told me when we were in quarantine, your videos gave us a reason to smile and come out of depression we used to wait for the videos everyday, I counted them and I saw I had made 127 videos in that period, nothing can stop us in today’s times, if it’s in you, make sure it’s put out there and expressed, you will know how good or bad you are.
Facebook, YouTube, Instagram has given our community award winning writers, Vloggers and influencers the time is now, We are blessed to be born in these times where AI is available to make our lives easier, use it as a tool put out your work, don’t be afraid to fail and experiment, it’s better to do and fail then to have not attempted at all.
Our community and India is growing every second!
What’s stopping you?