Tinsel

by Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran

  The gangland scenario had changed considerably since the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai. Most of the kingpins had escaped Mumbai and had set up bases in Dubai, Karachi, Bangkok, Cape Town, etc.

  The biggest underworld investor in Vikramaditya was the Bangkok based don Rajendra Narode AKA Raja. Raja had his roots in Chembur and knew Roy and Chika vaguely.

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  Yet, in gangland, money took priority over relationship and the calls and threats continued. Then, one evening, Chika got a call from an unknown international number. Chika knew who it was even before he answered the phone.

  Raja was courteous and politely asked Chika what the problem was. Chika explained their situation. Raja sounded sympathetic. He then asked Chika and Roy to come down to Bangkok to discuss the matter further.

  Chika and Roy both knew how dangerous the situation was. If the meeting went sour, there was a good chance that they would both get bumped off and their bodies never found.

  But a solution had to be found and both of them booked their tickets to Bangkok. The real purpose of the trip was not revealed to their families for obvious reasons.

  Rita and Zasha dropped them to the airport. Zasha seemed to have grown a few centimetres and Rita had sprouted a few grey hair.

  ‘Funny…’ thought Roy, ‘I hadn’t noticed them before.’

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  ‘Is this the last time I will be seeing my wife and kid?’ he wondered as he kissed them both goodbyes at the airport departure terminal.

  Chika too was unusually pensive. Rita could feel the uneasiness but knew well enough not to probe.

  She knew that there was a great financial burden on them caused by OPR’s untimely death and the fickle nature of the Hindi film industry.

  She was glad Chika was accompanying Roy. Together, she felt, they could surmount any problem.

  Throughout the flight, both of them were a little quiet. Neither of them had slept soundly and tried to catch up on a bit of shut-eye.

  Chika, in fact, even gave the cold shoulder to the pretty stewardess who was making eyes at him. Roy pointed it out to him and he laughed loudly.

  “On our way back.” He added.

  The flight landed at Suvarnabhumi Airport early morning. Two of Raja’s cronies were at the airport to receive and drive them straight to Raja’s apartment near the Pahurat Market, an

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  area so dominated by Indians that it was also called “Little India”.

  Raja’s apartment on the 3rd floor of a nondescript building was surprisingly low profile. It was a large apartment with the living room used as an office.

  Roy and Chika were taken through the living room into the dining area where an extensive breakfast was laid out for them.

  “Please have your breakfast; Bhai will join you in a few minutes” A local servant boy told them.

  “Fattening the lambs before slaughter,” whispered Roy to Chika as they sat down on the dining table. Chika smiled without conviction.

  Then Raja appeared, fresh from a shower and reeking of expensive cologne. He hugged and greeted both of them like they were long lost friends.

  After breakfast, they moved into another room to talk business. Raja was accompanied by a bespectacled young man who looked like a number cruncher and two of his top lieutenants.

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  Raja patiently heard out all that Roy and Chika had to say interrupting them occasionally to ask pertinent questions. He had obviously done his homework and behind the gangster appearance was a shrewd businessman.

  The number cruncher occasionally whispered into Raja’s ears and showed him some figures on the calculator.

  Raja then asked both of them to wait and went out of the room with the number cruncher. This was the worst period for the duo. They were, after all, discussing their fate.

  After what seemed like eternity, they walked back into the room.

  This time Raja spoke.

  “According to our calculations, you owe us Rupees 36.34 crores including interest.”

  He paused for effect and to watch the tension on the duo’s faces.

  “We also know that your total worth put together is less than 10 crores.”

  He paused again.

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  “So we have decided to help you,” he smiled revealing his crooked teeth.

  Then the number cruncher spoke, “You say that 60% of the film is complete. We will give you another 15 crores and 6 months to complete the film. Is that workable?”

  Roy and Chika nodded, their minds vigorously working on the production planning and execution.

  The number cruncher smiled, “After 6 months you will return our 50 crores and we will also acquire the complete overseas rights of the film. Both film and music.”

  The duo nodded.

  Raja then spoke, “You can work out the details with Battery here” He pointed out to the number cruncher.

  Mukesh “Battery” Bhosle took over, “We have several companies registered here and I will guide you through the contracts and agreements you have to sign. I want everything legit.”

  Raja then shook hands with them, “You will have to excuse me now, I have to take my wife to the temple.”

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  “Since your return flight is in the evening, Mukesh will organize a small tour of Bangkok after you finish the formalities,” he added.

  And just as he was going out of the door, he said “Chika, by the way, your dad called me last night and we had a long conversation.”

  On the way back, Chika spoke to his dad from the airport and realised that Daya Anna had pledged the resort he had built in Lonavla worth 30 crores to Raja, if ZMI failed to deliver a hit.

  “No wonder, they were so courteous,” he told Roy. “They had their bases covered. Either way they would recover their money.”

  Once back, the core team of ZMI sprang into action. Ali Azmi, who had directed “Section 302” for them, was signed in as Director of Vikramaditya in place of the absconding Karan Rajan.

  Ali, being the perfectionist he was, asked for a fortnight to research the history and mythology of King Vikramaditya. Shekhar and Ballu used that time to resurrect the sets and get the artistes and technicians back on board.

  When they met after a fortnight, Ali had a revised

  bound script of the film. Many of the excesses in

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  the original script were cut down and a lot more emotional content inserted. There was now a lot more focus on Vikramaditya the man, than Vikramaditya the King.

  A script narration session with the cast and senior crew was arranged and suggestions and feedback taken. Relevant suggestions were incorporated.

  Then Shekhar and Ballu came up with a plan to ensure that shooting went on uninterrupted. They rented a twenty bedroom guesthouse near the studio for three months and the cast and crew were asked to move in. The cast and crew would live, eat and work together.

  The move worked. The shooting of the film proceeded on war footing and on schedule. Ali was like a slave driver, demanding the best out of everybody and also of himself.

  The music of the film was awarded to an extremely talented, upcoming music director from South India called A. R. Suleiman.

  Suleiman asked for a copy of the script and one month to create the music. Exactly a month later, he called them to his studio in Chennai to listen to what he had created for them.

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  Roy, Chika, Ballu and Ali flew down to Chennai and listened to the six tracks that Suleiman had created for them.

  They absolutely hated it.

  When they expressed their opinion to Suleiman, he smiled and said, “Don’t take a decision now, wait for a couple of days.”

  The next day they heard the music again and it didn’t seem so bad. By the third day, they were humming the tunes.

  “I have made these tracks keeping the visual content
and the film’s historical background in mind. Gone are the days of Radio, today music is seen, not heard.” Suleiman explained and added, “I have taken the liberty of sending a CD of the tracks to Mr Zulfikar Saab to write the lyrics, I hope you don’t mind…”

  They nodded vigorously, Zulfikar Akhtar was arguably India’s most prolific writer, having him pen the lyrics of their film was simply phenomenal.

  “That man, Suleiman, is pure genius…” Ali exclaimed on the flight back to Mumbai, “I won’t be surprised if he wins an Oscar some day!”

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  He was already thinking of unusual locations, choreographers, dancers, camera angles, etc., to give the songs a spectacular video effect.

  The team landed in Mumbai satisfied, but there were other preparations to be made.

  Marketing a huge film without any superstars, that had to rake in 50 crores to breakeven, was a challenge. The film needed to be publicised but carefully. An over hype could easily lead to over expectations and its down fall.

  For the first time in the history of Indian film industry, a spin doctor was brought in as a consultant for the movie.

  Alyque Balsara, known as the father of branding in the advertising industry, had just retired after 40 years of working in apex positions of top notch advertising agencies in India. The popularity of some of the most popular brands that ruled the country was credited to him.

  Also known as the “Other AB” of the media industry, the man had an instinctive feel of the market. And though he charged an unheard of sum as consultancy fees, the ZMI think tank thought he was worth it.

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  AB went through the script in detail, had long discussions with Ali and saw the footages that had been shot.

  He then called the ZMI team to his office for a

  presentation.

  The first thing that he recommended was to change the name of the film from Vikramaditya to Vikram. It was easier on the tongue, easy to remember and it erased the memory of OPR from the film.

  Secondly, he asked them to create an illustrative comic book of the story and print 10 lakh copies of it. The comic book would use the film logo and the characters were to bear a resemblance to the Vikram star cast.

  “That will build character recognition and negate the fact that you don’t have any super stars in your film,” AB continued, “The comic should be distributed free of cost all over India. I think we can tie up with leading Cable MSOs and ask them to distribute them to their subscribers. It should be a value add for them and they shouldn’t mind.”

  “Also, since it is reaching such a wide audience, I can ask some of my clients to place advertisements

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  in the comic book. That will finance the printing cost. At the same time, it will build brand recognition and recall.”

  “That apart, it will bring with it a slew of merchandising opportunities. School bags, tee shirts, water bottles, tiffin boxes … anything under the sun!”

  “I have already called the illustrators and graphic designers, they are sitting outside. We can discuss with them once we finish here.”

  The idea was novel, appealing and cost effective. And it could well be the marketing coup of the century.

  Roy, Chika and the ZMI team were glad they had hired AB.

  Next was the Music launch of Vikram. For the first time, original movie footage of the songs were replaced by slick, trailer like specially shot video which also showcased the playback singer. The album had 8 songs and all 8 had peppy remixed avatars in the same album, specially meant for the discotheques and car systems.

  ZMI also tied up with leading toy makers and manufacturers of school stationery and started merchandising in a big way.

  All that was left was to plan the release date. After meeting with distributors and exhibitors, the release date was set as the first day of the new millennium.

  The shooting and majority of the special FX were over. The first edit of the film was 3 hours and 36 minutes long. Ali was instructed to sit with the editing team and bring it down to 2 hours and 30 minutes including titles and credits.

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  Since the songs were rampantly aired by music channels, Ali took the brave decision to edit out the songs from the movie.

  The music rights had been sold at a substantial 5 crore rupees by ZMI. Music was out in the market in the form of Audio Cassettes as well as the new format that seemed to be the future of sound, Audio Compact Discs.

  CDs had become much cheaper since their launch and were much more reliable than the traditional audio cassette. The digital sound quality was awesome and it was billed to kill the audio cassette in a matter of years.

  Attachable CD drives were now available for vehicles in India and the more expensive car music systems had its own disc drive.

  The digital quality sound made sure that the listener caught every beat of Suleiman’s genius.

  Post production and publicity design were in full swing readying Vikram for the New Millennium release!

  Meanwhile, Chika’s Sundays continued to be busy. On one such Sunday while he was wearing

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  his pants to go home, Rashmi got a distress call from Trisha.

  She was at a friend’s party and a few young local hoodlums had gate crashed the party and were misbehaving with the girls.

  The boys from their own group were too wasted to put up a fight with the hooligans.

  Chika saw the look of concern on Rashmi’s face and took the phone from her. Hearing Chika’s voice on the other side was such a relief for Trisha that she burst out crying. Trisha and two other girls had locked themselves in the bathroom. Chika calmed her down and noted the address. The bungalow was in Ghatkopar which was hardly 5 kilometres away. Chika assured her that he would reach in 10 minutes.

  Chika’s driver cum bodyguard was waiting under the building. Pandurang was a burly ex- cop licensed to carry a gun. Chika, took over the wheels and the Honda Accord screeched towards Ghatkopar. On the way, Chika called up Ghatkopar police station and filed a complaint. The constable immediately informed the patrol van that was doing late night rounds in that area.

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  As they ran into the compound, Chika called up Trisha and asked the girls to come out and open the door. The door opened, as soon as Chika rang the bell, it was one of the hooligans; he had been expecting one of his friends who had gone down to get some more booze.

  As soon as he opened the door, Pandurang slapped him and pinned him onto the wall. Chika immediately switched off the music system. The other three hoodlums who were forcing a couple of badly drunk girls to dance with them panicked and started running helter-skelter. Pandu grabbed one of them and Chika grabbed another. The third one tried to run upstairs but Trisha and the girls who had emerged from the bathroom blocked the stairway and pushed him down.

  Just then the cops arrived and took the perpetrators into custody. Chika took Trisha and drove down to the police station to complete the formalities. It was almost dawn by the time they finished.