The rising costs of making a movie has been a matter of concern for the Indian film industry especially for the producers and in the last few months some producers and directors have clearly stated that the rising cost of actors’ entourage has a good role in increasing the budget of movies.
In an interview, choreographer-director Farah Khan stated that there are many big actors who demand four vanity vans and they don’t start shooting until they get four vanity vans. She further added that one vanity is for their personal use, second is for their staff, third is for their gym and fourth is fot their kitchen.
Recently senior actress Shabana Azmi has spoken on this matter and she says that she is surprised that producers bear cost of such crazy tabs. She talks about Hollywood and says that she has never seen any such thing in Hollywood where except personal trainers, all other staff such as make-up artist, hair-dresser, dress designer, etc. are appointed by the producer’s team and no actor is needed to bring their own staff.
Shabana Azmi also recalled the old times and said that in the 1970 and 1980s, she had only a three-member team – a hair dresser, a make-up artist and a driver but if the movie is low-budget, she had nobody and then she used to take services of the unit’s make-up man and hair dresser. She added that in low-budget movies, she used her own clothes and always stayed in the same hotel in which the whole unit used to stay.
Shabana Azmi further talked about her movie, “Mandi” (1983) in which she worked with late actress Smita Patil. She said that they both were given separate cars for the shooting of “Mandi” but in just 2 days, they both returned the cars and started coming in bus with the other actors because they were having fun by playing games and singing.
Shabana Azmi further revealed that once she bought an air-ticket for her director when she came to know that he was travelling by train. She also disclosed that there have been instances in which Shatrughan Sinha and late actor Sanjeev Kumar have made the payments for the schedule which may have got cancelled because of limited funds.
The working style of Bollywood has changed a lot over the years but don’t you think that changes should be beneficial and they should not create troubles for moviemakers? What is your opinion in this regard? Share your views with us.
