Los Angeles – Back home!
In a few hours I will be on a flight to Los Angeles. I have never missed a place like I have missed Los Angeles in the last few months. I cannot wait to cross the immigration line and hear the familiar – ‘Welcome home’ from the Immigration officer. I cannot wait to use my cell phone, drive my car and use my atm card without getting hit by fees. I cannot wait to be on cruise control in my city. A place that I can move around with my eyes closed.
I have missed my friends, the creative conversations with my filmmaker buddies and the silence while driving my car on the highways and so much more.
India has been so challenging. The loneliness and the lack of silence almost killed me. Hyderabad has a small film industry and it is very incestuous. It is hard to make friends and really have deep conversation here. I managed to find some friends and hang on to them with dear life.
However to sum up my 5 months since I got here – I attended the Mumbai International Film Festival in October in Mumbai and had a blast screening ‘Mitsein’ for the audience there. I met some very interesting and creative people. My relationship with my lead actor Smriti Mishra has become more deep after that screening. I never saw that possibility when I was shooting the film.
November, I had a apartment warming party and also I followed Lakshmi Manchu’s film which was being directed by K. Raghavendra Rao. I went to Araku Valley with the cast and crew and got to experience a ‘Tollywood’ production. I took tons of pictures and celebrated my time with the unit. I met and got to see the vision and dreams of the assistant directors on the shoot. I made an interesting connection with KRR, the director who has made 105 films in 35 years. Wow!
Early December Mistein has it’s Los Angeles premiere and mid December I left for Kerala and after a short stint at Neyyar Dam Sivananda Ashram I went with a bunch of girlfriends to Varkala Beach. It was such a great way to bring in the new year. I got massages, swam in the ocean, read books, worked on my screenplay and just had way too much fresh juice. I met Jodie, Gemma and Talia and fell in love with them. I saw my first ever Kathakali performance and was blown away. And to add to it all I met Pia Shah and her beau who were vacationing at Varkala from NY. The last time I met Pia was with filmmaker Anjali Sundaram at Malibu Beach. I think Pia and I have a beach to beach thing going.
Early January I went with a new friend and writer Beena Gera to IIM Ahmedabad to give my first ever Screenwriting workshop as part of the Entrepreneurship Summit there. The seminar was a hit and I got lots of great responses and confidence that I could do it again. I even got write-up in the Ahmedabad Mirror. How cool was that! And the best part, I met with Madhu and Meghna and saw the evolution of the work they started in Mumbai. Madhu is all Gandhied out and I can only imagine what more he is going to create.
Back in Hyderabad I started to feel the low energy again. However something wonderful happened late January. Pierre Assouline came on board ‘The Anushree Experiments’ as a producer. I almost died when he did. I am the luckiest bitch ever. Pierre made a visit to Hyderabad and met with the finance guys here and we got to know each other. We went to Charminar where Pierre got some lovely pearls for his woman and then we got a most interesting tour with a most interesting tour guide of the Golconda Fort.
A few days later in early February I was in Mumbai with Beena Gera working on a new draft for Anushree which included the changes Pierre suggested to make the film have more potential for a crossover. One evening Pierre, Smriti Mishra and the rest of the writing team attended Deepak Bandhu’s debut film ‘Akhari Decision”s audio release function. We celebrated every time we saw a poster of the film in Juhu or on a bus. Had lots of Pav Bhaji. Mitsein’s score gets launched on iTunes. yey! I gave a seminar on screenwriting at Kartikeya’s Digital Academy and was impressed with what he has created with his filmmaking school. I saw the ‘Tejas’ in his students and how much fun I had giving the seminar there. And to top it all Beena and I created a concept for a LA based TV show and pitched it to Mohinder Walia at FOX TV. And that is when my buddy Mohinder tells me that he has known Pierre from Cannes. So of course we have a get together and have a blast. Fun fun fun.
On my way out of Mumbai I met and saw artist Lalitha Lajmi’s beautiful paintings at her studio. That was a truly magical day.
Back in Hyderabad mid February, Amulya my sister arrives from Copenhagen to celebrate my 40th birthday. Cousin Srinath arrives from Boston. The entire family is at my place for my birthday celebration. I cut two cakes and turn 40 amongst family and later with friends in the evening. I feel 21.
The later half of February was spent working on my screenplay and having amazing screenplay conversation with a film maker in town by the name Raj Pippalla. Mistein plays at the Beloit International Film Festival in Wisconsin and is a screenplay competition finalist.
Looking back, it has been a rather adventurous and full ride. I could not have planned it better. I cannot imagine what the ride will be like when I get back to Hyderabad mid April.
Meanwhile I am excited to be heading to Los Angeles, filing my taxes, meeting all my friends, film buddies and the Beverly Hills playhouse gang. I will see my co-writer Wynne after so so long. And of course my roomies at Glendale Manor, Mellissa and Copper.
Mid March I head to London for a day and then to Paris to have a mini vacation with my sister Amulya. My first trip to Paris. Irene Balmanoukian, my production designer from ‘Mitsein’ has arranged for an art show of my paintings in Frankfurt on the 26th and later we head to Copenhagen for a show as well. And a short trip to Oslo after that to meet the Norwegian artists from Can Serrat art residency in Spain.
I have a life that sparkles. I really have nothing to complain. I am stopping it.
Watch out for the pictures and stories from my US / Europe trip soon. I think I will come back all pumped up to go into ‘The Anushree Experiments’ pre-production. Cannot wait.
xoxo,
Aparna
