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It won’t be wrong to say this was a completely a Jugaad ka Video   This is the story of how the video for Khidki came about, shot beautifully by Channel [V]

As always, Vishal and Shekhar kept my best interests ahead of anything else and insisted that in exchange to Vishal being a Jury on Channel [V] Launch Pad and RDP playing for the finals (apart from me being the guest jury too), Channel V would produce a video to one of my songs and promote my music. How cool was that!

But this video was shot like with much passion, energy and purpose and it was anything but Jugaad ka video which I feared it would be. The fear was put to rest as soon as I met Ruchi from Channel V who was to direct and shoot the video. The first time I met her for the concept and subsequent chats on phone and emails, I was as confused as I am till now as to what was she trying to say!!

As a concept, I knew she had nailed it – me in search of my muse – but the technical jargon and processes she explained went over my head. I think I will just wait for the final edit!

We landed in Poona an evening early to the shoot day. ‘We’, being my wife Mayuri and I. Yet again, Mayuri was there when I needed her the most

Ruchi was ecstatic to meet Mayuri and gushed about how perfect Mayuri would be as the model for the video. So there you go, Channel V saved on the model cost too ha ha!! But seriously, this could not have been done with anyone else. Mayuri fit into the video perfectly and then performed so well that I was wondering why she does not do this regularly!

We started early the next morning, at around 5.30 AM and landed at the first location, close to the Kadhakwasala Dam (an hour or so by road from Pune) which was so beautiful that it looked straight out of the picture book – Hills and valleys and a river and the sun just stretching and yawning through the clouds far away.

The best part was that I was expecting some heavy gear and a large crew – but imagine my shock when I saw them pull out a still camera, put it in the movie mode and get started! The entire video was shot on the amazing Canon Mark 5D II DSLR!!! No extra lights or cranes or anything remotely associated with film making!

The next location was in the heart of Pune, an old, traditional vaadi surrounding a temple at the centre. It had some gorgeous looking antique doors and windows, staircases, lanes and by lanes, walls with mythological paintings, which I think were very cleverly exploited by Ruchi and the Cinematographer Somak Mukherjee. (Somak’s collection of Bangladeshi music was perfect for the journey throughout that it kept me calm through the highs and lows of the shoot).

We did encounter many hiccups – One major hiccup was when we realized that the location manager was nowhere to be located and had ended up in the wrong village and could not shoot some shots that Ruchi had planned but then she made up for the loss by shooting at an abandoned temple which was perfect.

But the icing on the cake was what we shot at a place called Daamli. A bald hill top with wind howling all around us and scarily blowing my lungi away every now and then, we shot some of the most magical shots there. Ruchi got a Window installed on the hill top and Mayuri and I had to act through it. We even had a shot at a village where I had to cycle at the same speed as that of the cart on which the window was being pulled and I had to remain in the frame of the window! I am sure that’s going to look funny!

Few more memorable shots were at the village – me getting a massage at a local barber shop – he was so conscious of the camera that he kept pressing at only one place on my shoulder that it started hurting after a while – and another shot inside a tea shop which was infested with flies all over that I feared one would enter my mouth as I sang out the song! All in all we pretty much shot what we had to and much more within a day.

I think Ruchi is not only a passionate film maker but also a very good people’s person. Despite many screw ups by the production team, she still managed to smile and horse the team forward to finish the shoot. She is a woman of big mama hugs, love and super powers. She called me the next day to tell me how happy she was with the footage and again started blurting out some technical jargon about how the images will now be superimposed on a wheel machine and blah blah blah blah … and I switched off my mind I think I will just wait for the final edit!

Khidki yeh sone na de re….raat bhar mujhe jagaaye re!
Chaan mein sitaaron mein, neend ke bazaaron mein, aahatein badhti jaaye re!
Khidki yeh sone na de re!