TRAVEL BLOG
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Hooray for Bollywood
I lost 380 Rupees on my first day in Mumbai. I have a system where I keep things in certain pockets so I can easily check if I have everything with me. I got lazy though and stuffed a bunch of notes in a pocket that stuff can easily fall from. It's not much when you convert it into dollars but I was more annoyed that I didn't adhere to my system.
It only took me a day though to get it back, and some. The next morning I was approached by a Bollywood casting agent looking for foreigners to do extra's work.
It has been close to four years since I have worked for someone other than myself. I usually don't get out of bed for less than 5000 Rupees a day, let alone the 500 Rupees they were paying. The draw of potential Sub-Continental stardom though was too hard to resist.
The agent found 12 foreigners and took us out to a studio in North Mumbai, where the Bollywood industry is based. Our work involved doing voiceovers for other extras where the soundtrack wasn't up to quality.
The movie is a romantic comedy set in South Africa. The movie had at three weddings, which seems par for the course in Bollywood movies. From what I saw, it's a really cheesy film. Actually it was dreadful, but all of the Indians in the studio were rolling on the floor laughing (ROTFL in text speak I believe). One of the Indian guys even put his arm around me, in the huggy Indian way, lest he fall over from laughter.
We had to do some set lines as well as background noise, such as party chit chat, so alot of Australian injokes were thrown in for our own amusement. Lunch was supplied, and they kept us in the studio until 8.30 that night, so they really got their 500 Rupees worth from us.
If you are interested in doing Bollywood extra work, just do a few laps of the Colaba area in Mumbai in the evening and someone is bound to approach you. I have been approached every night so far. I got an offer to be an extra in a commercial for 800 Rupees, but my time here in Bollywood is done.
I am compiling a list of jobs that I can say is my employment on customs arrival cards, so "Bollywood voiceover man" makes a fine edition to the list.
James
It only took me a day though to get it back, and some. The next morning I was approached by a Bollywood casting agent looking for foreigners to do extra's work.
It has been close to four years since I have worked for someone other than myself. I usually don't get out of bed for less than 5000 Rupees a day, let alone the 500 Rupees they were paying. The draw of potential Sub-Continental stardom though was too hard to resist.
The agent found 12 foreigners and took us out to a studio in North Mumbai, where the Bollywood industry is based. Our work involved doing voiceovers for other extras where the soundtrack wasn't up to quality.
The movie is a romantic comedy set in South Africa. The movie had at three weddings, which seems par for the course in Bollywood movies. From what I saw, it's a really cheesy film. Actually it was dreadful, but all of the Indians in the studio were rolling on the floor laughing (ROTFL in text speak I believe). One of the Indian guys even put his arm around me, in the huggy Indian way, lest he fall over from laughter.
We had to do some set lines as well as background noise, such as party chit chat, so alot of Australian injokes were thrown in for our own amusement. Lunch was supplied, and they kept us in the studio until 8.30 that night, so they really got their 500 Rupees worth from us.
If you are interested in doing Bollywood extra work, just do a few laps of the Colaba area in Mumbai in the evening and someone is bound to approach you. I have been approached every night so far. I got an offer to be an extra in a commercial for 800 Rupees, but my time here in Bollywood is done.
I am compiling a list of jobs that I can say is my employment on customs arrival cards, so "Bollywood voiceover man" makes a fine edition to the list.
James
Labels: bollywood, colaba, extras, mumbai
Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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