Chhaayaageet #187 - "Where are the flowers?"
It is 7am. The entire crew is on location bright and early to film a part of the song. Multiple rehearsals have already taken place. Trolleys, camera are all in place. A few more rehearsals while they wait for the right time to shoot.
What right time are they waiting for? 7:50am to be precise. A train passes once a day at 7:50am on the railway tracks in the distance from where they are shooting. And they need to incorporate the passing train in the scene. Everything needs to work like clockwork.
Just then the director notices a crucial ingredient of the scene missing. Where are the flowers in the heroine's hair? She is supposed to be wearing flowers. Parts of the song have already been shot with flowers in her hair. So where the hell are the flowers? He is livid at this missing detail.
The director looks over at his assistant, the AD responsible for continuity. The AD can hear the director's raised voice in his ears even through the stone cold look in the director's eyes. The poor AD feels like he might have a heart attack. Someone on the team has miscalculated something.
At this precise moment, the flowers are on a truck coming from Bangalore.
"What truck?," the director asks impatiently.
"The truck that is bringing breakfast for the crew."
"Why are they on that truck?"
"We thought we'll get fresh flowers for today's shoot."
The director is beside himself. Precious moments are slipping by. There is nothing to do except wait for the truck and hope it arrives in time before the train leaves the station and passes their spot.
"If we miss the train today, can we shoot the scene tomorrow?," one crew member asks another.
"No. The hero and heroine have to leave today for some other film location. So if we don't shoot this song today, then it will have to be in the next schedule," an answer is provided.
The question "Where are the flowers?" has morphed into "Where is the truck?" All eyes are on the road from Bangalore. Where is the truck? How far is the truck? There is no way to get these answers. No cell phones, no GPS, no location sharing. Just an interminable wait.
It is now 7:40am. For a little over 40 minutes everyone has just been waiting for the truck to show up. Every time a small object shows up in the distance on the horizon, hope floats. But then shoulders drop when they realize it's some other vehicle, or that it is a truck, but not their truck.
On any other day, they would be eagerly awaiting the truck for it would mean time for a sumptuous breakfast. Today, the truck is carrying a more important consignment, flowers for the heroine's hairdo.
If the truck does not show up in the next few minutes...the AD's face is white and pale even with the thought. He is praying hard and feverishly. God, if there is a God and you are listening, please do something. Do anything, and make the truck show up.
At 7:43am, the truck pulls up by the side of the road. Hurriedly, the flowers are carried over from the truck to the waiting heroine and fixed in her hair.
They can hear the train whistle. That means it is departing Ramanagara station. The vehicle carrying the camera is rolled back. At precisely 7:50am, the heroine driving her tonga, the hero, and the train all come into the shot perfectly.
Everyone heaves a sigh of relief.
Dharmendra and Hema Malini are the lead pair in Ramesh Sippy's magnum opus Sholay (1975) and the central actors in the song Koi haseena jab, sung by Kishore Kumar, with a few words voiced by Hema Malini, music by RD Burman, lyrics by Anand Bakshi. Khalish Lakhnavi, an assistant director from GP Sippy's days was in charge of continuity for the film.
When Ramanagara was decided as the location for the film, the production team built a road from the Bangalore highway to the village to make it convenient for people to reach the sets.
The song is a romantic number with Dharmendra (Veeru) wooing an upset Hema Malini (Basanti). It was obvious to everyone on set during the filming of Sholay, that Dharmendra and Hema Malini were a couple.
Koi haseena jab was the first song composed for the film. RD Burman would ask Salim-Javed for just a high level narration of the story, but when it came to songs, he would ask Ramesh Sippy for a very detailed narration of the entire song to know what the director had in mind for how he planned to shoot it.
The music and songs of Sholay were widely appreciated, however, they were overshadowed by the dialogues of the film, a rarity. Sholay received a slew of nominations at the Filmfare Awards: Best Film (GP Sippy), Best Director (Ramesh Sippy), Best Actor (Sanjeev Kumar), Best Supporting Actor (Amjad Khan), Best Comedian (Asrani), Best Story (Salim-Javed), Best Music Director (RD Burman), Best Lyricist (Anand Bakshi for Mehbooba mehbooba), Best Male Playback Singer (RD Burman), however, it won only one Filmfare Award, Best Editing (MS Shinde). However, the film has a cult following.
Music: RD Burman
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
*ing: Hema Malini, Dharmendra
Singers: Kishore Kumar, Hema Malini
Director: Ramesh Sippy
Film: Sholay (1985)