sachin tendulkar for amit

working With a God In India

I love working in India, you never know quite what to expect or what you can count on. It's actually a great life lesson on how to let go while putting all of your heart into the creative process.

This was a very ambitious production, and we had an Indian production company that was all in, the legendary VFX company The Mill, on board, and India's extreme-superstar-cricket player Sachin Tendulkar as the star. In India, Sachin is a God. There are temples built in his name. That's right, Temples... people praying. 

The intensely elaborate VFX in the storyboard demanded a pre-production of 3 weeks, a detailed pre-vis, and then a couple of months in post production. As I was in the car from the airport, having just arrived in Mumbai - after a 20+ hour flight from the states - I received word that we needed to shoot asap, and the pre-production with The Mill had been cut down from 3 weeks to 3 days. Our "God" Sachin, needed to shoot asap or we would lose him. Can't lose "God".

It was now up to me, how to restructure the story, while keeping the concept, action, and VFX mind numbingly great. 3 days. 

Somehow with intense jet lag, Dehli belly, and room service, I worked it out. The team was happy with my inventive solutions and quick rewrite of their concept. 

The first day of the shoot arrives. On set there's a anxious snake handler-who walks around with a loudly hissing basket, an explosive "expert" that has missing fingers and has massive scars on his face, and our "God" Sachin, who is resting in his massive pink motor home, trying to recover from an ugly defeat night before.

Then Chandra, (my A.D.) comes up to me and says, "Sir, it seems that Sachin has just now seen the boards, ...." her head gracefully tilting back and forth, (as only they can do) "...and, well, he says can't do it, as he refuses to run, due to a sore ankle" Now, mind you, our "God" Sachin has received an unworldly amount of cash to do this commercial, and the rumor is, that he also received two penthouses, and a top of the line BMW. Sore ankle? Oh, did I mention that the entire concept is him running, through walls. Running. 

With a careful tone Chandra asks, "Sir, shall I let his people know that you will sit down with him about this?" Still a bit bewildered I reply "Yes Chandra, I'll speak with him, Thank you"

As I'm escorted by a posse of "God's" mumbling handlers ( think priests ) to the overly protected massive pink motor home, I'm suddenly struck by the feeling that this is more an "audience with his majesty" than a chat about a sore ankle. The agency art director runs up to me and whispers in my ear. "Make him run Joel, we know you can do it man" 

I enter, sit, and wait for God. Then he appears. He is shorter than I expected, and a nice fellow. He is very sincere, and explains his pains. Then he says it, "Now Joel, you wouldn't want me to hurt myself on this shoot, and lose again, would you? My fans would not appreciate that." At that point, I had a vision, of me in a dusty fedora, with a whip at my side, running down a dilapidated tarmac, to a slowly accelerating yellow bi-plane with a seat open, and all of India wielding cricket bats, ropes and torches on my heels.

I look his majesty in the eye, swallow, and say, "I see your point. Not to worry, I can make this work. You won't run today" My inside voice is somehow laughing and screaming all at once."Thank you, Joel" God smiles. "Thank you, Sachin. It's a real pleasure to work with you."

And then, I found myself outside the holy of holies of the Massive Pink Motor Home in a bit of a daze. From 3 weeks prep, to 3 days prep, to a complete re-write of the concept in 15 minutes. "Can someone get a hooded sweat shirt ASAP?!! And Chandra, can you bring me Sachin's double" 
"He is coming, Sir"

Ahhhh ... India, I do love it!