2 very different interviews

I've been back to London to do a couple more interviews for the documentary. The first was with Uday Tiwari, who is the Director of Photography on the picture, and is a really amazingly sweet and interesting guy. He spoke very in a very heartfelt manner, effusively and kindly, about all the people involved with the picture and how much he enjoyed working with them. He went on to speak about how important the camera was to him. In Indian cinema there's a custom of performing a puja on the first day of the shoot, so that God's blessings can be with the project, and (to paraphrase Uday) God can be remembered at times of difficulty, as films all have ups and downs. Uday also has the custom of praying to the camera, which was described to me by another member of the camera crew as being "Like a baby, like a God" to those who work with it. Uday described his profound emotional and spiritual connection with the camera, which he called his bread and butter. He was thankful to it because it allowed him to work, allowed him to have a family, and he felt good, and could think clearly when he was in contact with it.
 
It got me to thinking, but I haven't drawn any conclusions. Suffice to say, once again, the Indian tradition of gratitude and religiosity in all things once again touched my heart...
 
My next interview was with the legend that is Kabir Bedi. As I've lately been getting a lot of traffic from various Kabir fan pages and forums (thanks Andrea!) I thought I'd share some of my experiences of him (those who don't know who he is check out his site!). He described some of his previous career, explaining that although he had worked here in England, and was biologically half English, this was perhaps the country that knew his work the least, with the exception of the communities who watch a lot of Hindi films. He talked of his pleasure at working on Take 3 Girls, a film which he'd obviously enjoyed working on. He's a very conscientious  actor, and thinks very seriously about the work he does, and clearly considers the whole film, as well as his own part. Those of you who've read some of my previous posts on the craziness that went into getting this film in the can will appreciate the wisdom in the warning Kabir offered  Baz Taylor  (the director) before shooting began - "You'll meet the worst planners in the world, and the best improvisers in the world." He also compared the Bollywood and British film industry saying (slight paraphrasing going on here...) "In Bollywood they spend two weeks preparing and two years shooting, here they spend two years preparing and 2 months shooting..." Very notable observation...
 
Saw Fahrenheit 9/11 tonight - very very very interesting piece of work - I'd definitely recommend seeing it, even though it's Moore, so the point is made with a sledgehammer. But maybe it has to be that way, because of what he's fighting against.