Fraught journey from screen test to bagging the job

Today let me take you on my TV commercial journey from audition to final shoot. It starts with the casting director calling you “Sir, we have a commercial for a client and would like to screen test you.” First, he gives you the possible shoot dates and enquires on your availability. Next, whether you have in the past acted for a similar product. All clear and he invites you for a trial shoot at the studio. At the studio he explains your character. When there are words to be spoken, he gives you the script and asks you to study them. Within 15-20 minutes you are expected to memorise the dialogues for the shoot. The casting director himself fills in for other characters. The camera crew is all set and the trial shoot is on. It may take three or four takes before the director says “fine, that was great” and soon we pack up. With experience you know that “that was great” is no guarantee that you are on! If you don’t hear in the next eight days, consider it’s off. They never call back. Still you wait anxiously and when at last you hear the casting director’s voice on the other side your heart beats faster. “Sir, you are shortlisted”. Wow! Then he enquires on your fees for the shoot and once again confirms your avalibility for the dates. Now hopes soar sky high, so does the tension till the shooting day is just a couple of days away and you haven't got any calls. You then realise you’ve lost it. A fortnight later you see the commercial on TV and feel you were far better — personal ego, I suppose !

Now let me talk to you about one of the two recent ones that I succeeded in bagging. The first one was for an innerwear brand. The shoot was at a railway repair yard. First, we don make up and try costumes at an air-conditioned van parked nearby. You relax in the van until the tailors make the required alterations. Meanwhile, the director and the crew set up the shoot. The call comes and I proceed towards the platform. The director and the producer greet me.It seems my daughter Shernaz had worked for the same producer earlier and he recalls his association. I notice two bogies filled to the brim with passengers. They are extras hired for the shoot. I am an old man with a heavy suitcase in my hand climbing the steps of the compartment, pushing myself to find a seat, the cameras trained on me. There is no seat empty when a kind gentlemen gets up and offers me his seat. I thank him and sit. The camera shifts on this kind gentleman played by actor Sunny Deol. The shoot goes on till late evening. We pack up and I drive back home dreaming of handshakes and smiles and recognition nods once the commercial is released.

But I am up for a rude shock once the commercial is on the air. No one noticed I was there. Even my driver who always boasts to his friends “this is my boss” failed to spot me. I learnt  that day whenever you work with a star, the 20-second commercial will show him for 15, leaving 5 seconds for the rest of the players.

The author is a well-known stage personality