[Photography by Sam Brill: sambrill.500px.com]
For those of you who get my instagram feed, you will already know I was sent to an Indian prison yesterday. I had better clarify now that I was “just visiting”, to quote the monopoly board. It was in fact as part of a film set for Hassan Nazer’s film, Utopia.
Set high above the main city, the prison was built into the Narhargarh Fort. Accompanied by 50 extras or “inmates” in prison uniform and a handful of armed guards, we began filming. Though it wasn’t long before Stockholm Syndrome set in and guards and prisoners alike seemed to mill about in the catering tents and pose for photos with prop weapons.
The acting coach might have struggled to make our hardened convicts seem more threatening, but for once the the whole set seemed to be functioning in perfectharmony. This was until one of Jaipur’s unseasonal monsoon storms hit without warning. Exposed to the wind and the rain and the lightning on the ramparts we had fifty white uniforms to keep dry. The art department bravely manned their ladders to take down the non-waterproof parts of the set. The Europeans amongst us were ready to take this as an ‘early wrap’ to the day. Fortunately, in Rajasthan, such extremes of weather only last moments and within a couple of hours the sun was out and the yard was bone dry once again.
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| The Yard |
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| Preaching to the converted |
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| Flat-pack Furniture |
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| Long arm of the law. |
One of the more memorable scenes to film involved putting the prisoners through their paces with exercises in the yard. Not knowing quite how the scene would work out on camera, there were a number of test rehearsals. The extras went from line dancing to something that looked remarkably like strip the willow. Finally Kuldeep, our first AD, and Hassan lead a route-march round the courtyard. In a surreal blur of limbs and white fabric, it was like a caterpillar on maneuvers. It looked like a lot of fun if it weren’t for the fact it was all being done ‘bare foot’.
Remedial Exercises
After what was already an eventful day, we were due one more surprise. Having been issued the order to meet in the hotel basement no earlier than “a quarter past ten”. I was running late for this meeting, but I needn’t have rushed. The noise was already coming up from the basement to meet me.
To a soundtrack of Contemporary-Punjabi dance music, the Iranian, Indian and UK contingents were already hitting the D-floor – busting what could only be described as: “some very international shapes.” Though the thunderstorms caused a couple of intermissions in the DJ set, it was the start of a very successful Friday night in Jaipur.
