Diary of a Bollywod Star in iNdia - Part 2 - Insects and animals

11th to 12th November

It’s been a crazy couple of days. My filming is full swing now, and the cast have all bonded.

The story line of Dairy of a butterfly, is focused on 3 career minded women, and today we got to do a great scene together.

One of the leading actresses, Uditya Gotswami, and I had a scene with the third girl in the story, Priya. (Our script names are Carol, that’s me, Gul, that’s Uditya, and Piya, being Sneha in real life).

We had a drunken scene in which they all thought I was actually drunk, because I kept falling over..which was, in character..but this scene really bonded us all!

Gaurav and I in local press(shot on set in a spa in Bhopal)

A new addition to the cast was Gaurav Dixit, who is a well known TV actor here. He plays my boyfriend. We have had a few scenes together, and the best thig about him, is that he travels with his own personal masseur. Ofcourse, I became friends with him quickly, and took advantage of this! ;-)

I have to say, one of the best massages I have ever had. I was told he earns around 2000 rupees per day, which I gues is around £30. For sure he would make so much more in the UK!

Gaurav’s parents also came to visit him on set, as did Uditiyas. They looked so proud of their kids, which only reminded me of what I have missed allo f  my life. No matter how much I tell the story of my mother, when I see others being supported by their parents in this way, it tugs at my heart, and I feel a slight lonliness, an almost aching of the heart, which I ignore most of the time, desensitize myself to, otherwise, I would be crying!

So Gaurav, (Akaash, his character name), and I had a scene outdoors at 1am. I can’t tell you what happens, as I cannot give the story line away. Anyway, it was a tough shoot. Why? Because when the set lighting was on outside, we attracted hundreds of insects. I am not talking, small insects, but huge Flying cockroaches, grasshoppers as big as your fingers, and crickets! It was like a biblical plague had discende on us. Of course, being a girl, what did I do? FREAK OUT!!! I screamed 3 times, and was asking the crew to remove the insects. Every time I went on set, the bloody things came at me like missiles attacking the enemy!! I doged as many as I could, but screamed as loud as a rocket on bonfire night!

Hindustani Times covers our shoot

Eventually, I felt so stupid, and was holding everyone up, that I asked God to help me not look stupid, and to just stop this plague of insects fr the duration of the shoot. By now the whole crew were laughing, which I suppose is good. Being an entertainer, I like to make people smile, even at my own expense!!

I finally did the scene in one take, (Thankyou God and I won’t swear again, promise), and the crew packed up for the night.

My driver was as prompt as usual and drove me home, I mean the hotel..(after a while of living in hotels as an actor, you start calling your hotel room, home!)

We did get 3 wild boar run across the road at one point as well as the usual homeless dogs, of which there are many. Every time I see them I want to hug them, and miss my doggies so much!

13th Nov

I woke up this morning, and as I got up to change, staring me in the face in my bed, uninvited, was Mr Grasshopper. You guessed it, I screamed, jumped out of bed, put some clothes on and tried to grab the nearest man to me, that is Rakesh Sabharwal, the film’s producer, who is staying in the room next to me. He laughed it off and said he would fill my room with insects one day to cure my phobia. I said if he did that I would literaly have to commit murder!!

We kept messing up one line where Gul had to say, (don’t use the rubber too much before the pencil runs out..something like that anyway). You have to see the film a sto how it fits in, but we couldn’t stop laughing each time the line came up, due to it’s sexual connotations! The director, Vinod Mukhi, was annoyed, as we used up so much tape, but he also laughed with us!

We got home (there it is again), at 11pm, where we had some food, after which I had a wardrobe check and am now writing this after a long deserved hot bath!

My Skype is working, but not the internet so this will be uploaded as soon as I can get access, soon I hope.

So Tomorrow, I get to lie in, but as a consequence, I have to work till 2am. Yes it’s a hard life, yes I am tired and you are probably so bored of hearing that