Ms. Godda Chadda

On the sets of my latest film, with a heart full of enthusiasm, a body feeling the pleasant pains of the last day’s good workout, and a skin glowing from plentiful sleep, I was READY.

It was a day of minor stunts. I had to jump, chase,leap,lunge and run.  The team had made the required arrangements. I did a few jumps and felt like the queen of my castle. Soon, I felt a small sensation in my stomach.  The next jump, from where I stood, looked alright. The director jumped twice and the first AD hustled us on. Not his fault, that was his job. And then I jumped.

....The team was sitting under a blue tent in my eye-line. A tall palm tree stood behind them. The sky was blue and the ground was hard under the mattresses.  What I had felt three milliseconds before the jump is what can be described as ‘gut feeling’...

Black-out.

Who is not a shoemaker???

Dev.D

Yes, I wasn’t in the movie. Yes, I had nothing to do with the production of it in any way, but, it was a big deal for me. No. And the director in question is no shoemaker!

Why?

College was over. I had stopped working with Nadira Babbar’s Ekjute Theatre Group and joined Barry John. Under his direction, we commenced work on a play called Baghdad ka Ghulam. I was excited to know that sometime in the 80s, King Khan himself had played the title role under Barry Sir’s direction.

Barry John's Baghdad ka Ghulam.  I, in orange.

My desire to become an actor was well-known among my peers by now. Someone suggested I go to audition for an Anurag Kashyap film. I greedily agreed!

Aram Nagar is a legendary place. Spotted with Beverly-Hills-like palm trees, it’s a magical place where in the abundant nearby coffee shops, creative people meet. Much in the nature of a marriage consummating, an idea for a film is conceived at every table, and while most such films have a limited release on that very table, some masterpieces actually see light of day. So …I went to 40, Aram Nagar part 2, with greasepaint on my face. Three gentlemen were in a small wooden floored room to take the audition. Vasan Bala * was one of them.

Maybe we are the change!

It was an easy break by all means. There was no slimy producer offering me a couch as the ladder to success, I wasn’t making an entry as a silly moll or as a sexy item number.

It happened like this. I was acting in a period play called “Baghdad ka Ghulam’ directed Barry John. I played Benazir, a woman who dresses as a man in order to reach her lover in the traditional Arabic 18^th century setup. An assistant spotted me and called me to audition for Dibakar Banerjee’s next film.