A Bit in Bollywood

“London Dreams” will be in theaters in August, but probably not at a theater near you. That may not be a bad thing, as if you saw it, you might see my face in the concert scene at Wimbley Stadium. Now, you may be thinking, Karen, you’re in Mumbai, not London, but those clever Bollywood types found a way to fool the audiences by hiring 29 dirty backpacker Westerners to stand in the front row. Now, you may think, ahhh, that solves it, but these folks went farther and hired 60 foreign students from the universities in Pune to also come and fill in the front of the audience – so there we are, Westerners (aka white), Afghans, Iranians and some others, trying to block out the other few hundred Indians filling the stadium set.

We started filming at about 8pm and didn’t finish until after three in the morning – watching the actors (one VERY famous, the others working their way up into Bollywood tabloid stardom) lip-sync the same song, the Russian dancers (supposedly from London as well) dance and the audience in a hysteric rage that this very “studly” (he wishes) Indian lead singer make it to the big times in Europe. Oh, and he gets the girl, too. See, now you don’t have to see it.

So, I said to one student from Afghanistan, sorry we’re attacking your country. Oh, he says, sorry we’re attacking your troops. That settled, he told me all about the different actors and even how many lights made up the stage’s backdrop. We had a lot of free time. But, as the foreigner extras, we were treated to a catered dinner (at 1am) with all of the staff and actors and even got paid 500 Rupees ($10!).

Like Hollywood of old, the studio was way out in the scrub brush countryside, so it was almost two hours drive back to the city and finally, as the morning sun was coming up over the Gateway to India, and the Taj Hotel – now fixed from the November 26 attacks, it was time for bed.

I’m too old to be a screaming fan at a concert, but I am quite an actor, in case you do end up renting it someday. But I do know that being a big star isn’t all the glamor we claim. It’s boring and repetitive and not something I would want to do day in and out. But for a fun time when visiting Mumbai, I do highly suggest it.


The set - lights on the back of the stage and green screens to fill in the set


That's a rap - the lead actor is the man in the background with a grey sweater shaking hands