Tuesday, August 14, 2007

My meeting with Shimit Amin, the director of Chak De

Date - 08/12/2007; Time - 9:30 pm; Location - Naz8 cinemas, Cerritos.

The moment which i'll remember for a long time.
1) coz i met one of the most promising directors of bollywood and also spoke to the first ever celebrity in my entire life.
2) The moment which forced me to start a blog of my own where in i can share this and many more of my experiences n incidents with all u guyz n galz out there.

I was watching Chak De india on sunday nite 8'o clock show @ naz8 cinemas in cerritos. And before i go further, lemme tell u that its one of the finest movies made in india. It belongs to the category of movies which are deviating from the usual Bollywood ishtyle formula of hero-heroine-song-dance-romance-comedy
-villain-fight-family-happy ending. There used to be a time not long ago when there were few directors who dared to go off-track to make a more meaningful, close to reality sorta movie. A time when audience were totally transported to a world where they r made to believe there is a hero who has strength equal to 30 - 40 well built heavy duty goondas, and at the same time has a heart as soft as a rose petal which can melt anytime. He sings, he romances, and he also fights. woww !!! a feat only achieved by superheroes in hollywood movies. Thankfully audience have become more matured now and are not accepting any shit thrown at them. This is paving way for some realistic, hard-working and passionate directors to showcase their work, of which i met one of them, Shimit Amin,the director of Chak de India.


Come intermission and we were standing in the line to get our masala tea and samosas. My brother-in-law, Anand, had just arrived here from India the day before. So he was all excited to watch his first hindi movie in US. When i was just explaining his excitement to the theater manager, he told me to hold my breath for a bigger surprise. And then he calls over this very shy guy whom normally nobody would notice and tells us to meet Shimit Amin, the director of the film we are watching. And we all were like ....WHAAAAATTTT !! i mean honestly i was taken aback completely surprised. I didnt know how to react...my first words to him were like " R u for real Shimit Amin " hehe...i have to agree that i've never seen his picture before in my life. So i had to make sure they werent playing a prank on me. and he jokingly said " no he's jus kiddin "...and then agreed that he is THE director. the incident is so clear in my head right now that i'm gonna give u a screenplay of our conversations :

Me : i can't believe i'm talkin to the director of the movie i still am watching right now :)
Shimit : how did u like it so far
Me : oh its excellent. I mean i always wanted to see SRK in this kinda different roles. I luved him in Swades and now in Chak de.
Shimit : all credit goes to jaideep, the writer of the movie.
Me : luved ur ab tak chappan.
Shimit : thanks

( here i got a mental block....i was so excited that i forgot wat to ask ...its like when i had the moment, words didnt come out ...ahh i got another question )

Me : how did it all happen..i mean who approached whom first...did u talk to aditya chopra or did he come to u ?
Shimit : nono Jaideep first came up with the story and presented it to Adi. And when Adi finalised it they approached me for directing it.
Me : i'm really happy that yash raj banners r coming up with such diverse movies as kabul express and now chak de.
Shimit : yeah
Me : so was Shahrukh ur first choice or did u go over few other actors.
Shimit : Jaideep wrote the story keeping Shahrukh in mind.
Me : wowww...well u guyz have made a great movie which is so different from the current lot, but seriously when i first heard of this movie, i was wondering who will watch hockey and that too girl's hockey. also no heroines...how wud it become a hit...what a big risk taken here...but now after watching it, i feel so happy and proud that there r people in this industry who really can make the impossible possible.
Shimit : ( got bored at this time i guess..he was looking around to make sure nobody spots him )
Me : wats ur next movie gonna b ??
Shimit : i dunno ...we just finished this movie now...it took 3 yrs to make it...i'll look for a good script.
Me : i'm really happy that we have gr8 directors in bollywood right now like Rakeyesh Omprakash, Ashutosh and yourself.
Shimit : Yeah Rakesh is very good
Me : one last thing sir, do u think u'll make a movie with AR Rahman in the future.
Shimit : ( smiles and says ) ohhh...he's too big for me :)
Me : nono...actually u'll be surprised how humble a man he's. ok how about one autograph and a picture.
Manager: nono he's not gonna take any pictures. sorry guyz intermission is gonna be over..go now...
Shimit : hey its ok...chalo lets take one quick photo
Me : THANK YOU VERY MUCH SIR......all the best for the future projects

and thus ends my convo with Shimit which lasted about 10 - 15 mins...as soon as i came home, i went to the web to see if i'm not fooled by them...but then i was thrilled to see that i had just met one of my first film personalities and even talked to him for 15 mins. A moment which i'll surely remember in the future....and which i hope wud happen again with some other star ( hopefully AR Rahman )...and when it does....it wud strike me as Deja Vu....and thus i got a title for my blog :) ...yayyyy

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very impressive No. 2

Anonymous said...

super..........

Ram said...

super da. i went to watch it today and had to watch "Invasion" instead cos the movie was sold out :(( - need to book in advance for the next show.

welcome to the blog world, btw!

- S i R i S h - said...

Thanks all for ur comments...its exciting to blog..now i'm constantly in search of interesting things and at once share it :) ...btw ram did u c om shanti om trailer ??