Filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker’s Swades didn’t do well at the box office when it released in December 2004. However, the film, which stars Shah Rukh Khan, Gayatri Joshi, Kishori Ballal in the roles of Mohan Bhargav, Geeta and Kaveri amma, became a cult classic over the decades. As the film completes 20 years today, it’s DoP (Director of Photography) or cinematographer Mahesh Aney recalls some interesting and funny moments during the shoot in an exclusive chat with Bollywood Hungama.
20 years of Swades EXCLUSIVE: DoP Mahesh Aney on the train scene where Shah Rukh Khan buys water, “Woh bachche ne phaad diya woh shot, and SRK in that scene was…”
How did you come on board Swades?
Ashu had spoken about this film to me, but I couldn’t accept it as I was doing something else. So, they got another cameraman. But later in 2003, Ashu said there was a problem (with the earlier DoP) and asked if I am available. I said yes. But there was a lull for a month. No talk. One day I was in Satara to visit our Guru. Ashu called and asked if I could visit Wai, which is close by, and look at the house designed by Nitin Desai. Ashu said he didn’t get back to me for a month as there was some problem. He then asked me to meet him in Chennai soon.
Ashu was already in Chennai with (AR) Rahman. We started our script session. When we finished, he asked what I thought of it. I said it was wonderful. He asked what came to my mind. I said somehow Gandhi (movie) comes to my mind imaging wise. Ashu started laughing, he reached out to a drawer and pulled out a CD of Gandhi. He said he got it along, just in case I wasn’t on the same page (laughs). The US recce had already been done by the previous cameraman. He had done a thorough job, and a lot of my things were already sorted out. The 70 percent of the house (where Kaveri amma stayed) was also ready.
You won the National Award for this film. That must have been special
I wasn’t really expecting the National Award. Of course, I was very happy, but it came as a bit of a shock to me. I have been on the jury on the Panorama, National Awards and things like that. So, I knew that the kind of films that get pushed forward are not like Swades because it will always be regarded as commercial and mainstream cinema, which doesn’t qualify for National Awards.
Later, I got a call from Vinod Guruji (art director). He congratulated me and said that now that I have won the National Award, I will have to sit at home for the next five years. I said, “What is wrong with you?” But he said, “Aisa hi hota hai, tu dekh abhi”. And then for the next five years, I didn’t get a single release. All the films I did were stuck. I went through a bad patch. A film like Taare Zameen Par, which was offered to me, was taken away. So, winning the National Award was very good. But I suppose when you win an award, people probably look at you differently. I don’t know; that’s what sort of happened, especially in advertising and mainstream cinema. People say, “Arre nahin, yeh toh National Award wala hai.” So, it robbed me of my career for the next few years (laughs).
The scene where Shah Rukh Khan is traveling by train, and he accepts cheap water from a water seller is considered one of the best moments from the film. Can you brief us about how it all was shot?
If you see a slightly wider shot, you will see it’s the shot of the over-shoulder of the guy sitting on the opposite seat of the window. That person is actually Ashu. Ashu, at all times, was in conversation with Shah Rukh. It was so casual, the way the scene was taken, although the intensity was there. And we got it. The beauty of it is that 99 percent of all of them were non-actors, including the kid (who sold water). Can you imagine what that kid has done? Woh bachche ne phaad diya hai woh shot! All the little actions he did so beautifully yaar. And Shah Rukh in that scene; that guy is phenomenal.
How did you find Shah Rukh Khan off camera?
I have done ads with him before. He is an amazing guy. He is so prepared. There were times when he went to do an ad in between the shoot with Prahlad Kakkar. He told me, “I will be back on the set at 9 pm and you should be prepared to take the shot at 9:20 pm. I will be ready with make-up.” And this didn’t happen once, it happened 3-4 times. He would always be back on the dot. Not one day there was a delay because of Shah Rukh. Never once did I have to say twice that I am ready. I wish all actors were like this. Aamir is also very good. I have done a lot of ads with him. I feel the bigger they are, the better they are. That’s why they are big. It is all the chillars that give you all problems.
The song ‘Yeh Tara Woh Tara’ is another well appreciated moment from the film, especially when the partition is removed which symbolically nullifies caste differences
There is a little scene before that where he (SRK) and dadaji are sitting under the tree and talking. We shot the scene and were then about to shoot the song when my assistant came and said, “Boss, woh shot ulta ho gaya hai. We crossed the line”. It means, if I place the camera on the wrong side or if it is not in continuity from the earlier shot, the characters flip. I didn’t believe my assistant, but he insisted. I sat down and checked and realized that this had actually happened. I told Ashu but he refused to believe it. I showed him and he said, “Now who is going to tell Shah (Rukh Khan)?” I said, “You are telling him, you are the director.”
Mr Shah was sitting with his iPad. Ashu went towards him and suggested doing the scene again. Shah Rukh said, “Kyun? Tune toh okay bola tha…” Ashu said but still we should do it. But Shah Rukh insisted on knowing why. Finally, we had to tell him what happened and that we crossed the line. Shah Rukh said, “I knew you had crossed the line.” He said the moment the camera was set up, he knew yeh shot ulta ho gaya hai. But he said, “I kept mum because I have to shoot the entire film with you guys. Had I been wrong, there is a Mahesh Aney and Anushtosh Gowariker in front of me, and you guys for the next 80 days would have told me, shut up, you don’t know cinema (laughs).” We then re-shot it.
In the song, there were two sides divided by a purdah. If you notice, the camera always kept the upper caste characters on the right and the lower caste on the left. This was a very conscious camera positioning. And the most difficult part of that song is that it is shot line by line. So, we were literally moving the camera around a lot.
Some part of the film is shot in the US and some in a village in India. Did you employ different techniques to shoot both the locations?
If you look at the film very closely, the colour tones in both the areas are very different. Whatever I shot in America, especially NASA, has a blue-grey tone to it. But for the entire shoot in India, I gave it a much warmer look. It is hot to look at. I shot half the film on Kodak and half on Fuji. I opted for Kodak in India because it gave me that great warm look that I wanted. I opted for Fuji in the US for two reasons. It was giving me the kind of look that I wanted. And because we are going to shoot a lot of windows in NASA, I needed a faster film, which only Fuji was manufacturing at that time.
How was the experience of shooting inside NASA? Very few films have been shot there
This was only the third film that was shot inside NASA. They are pretty sticky about it. They want to read the script, what is happening, etc. The beauty of it is that I got to shoot in, what is called, their fire room at Cape Canaveral. That is the place where they sit and press the button for the rockets to take off.
There is a great incident that happened there. There is a scene where Shah Rukh and his friend Vinod are talking. At the back you see the launch pad. While leaving, I forgot my bag over there, which had my passport, money and everything. The lady Terry who was co-ordinating said that she can’t get me back inside now. We were at the gate when a van arrived with astronauts. They were returning from the launch area.. They had seen us shooting. They were told that the DoP had forgotten his bag. They asked me to just hop in. I then went inside with them and picked up my bag. There were 7-8 of them. They said, ‘Man, you are not getting off so easily. You are buying us beers tonight’. I went with them to a great little riverside bar for the beers and heard a lot of little stories of these astronauts. I had a smashing time with them.
Ashu was worried about where I was all this while. I was missing for four hours (laughs). When I came back, I told them you guys would never believe (what happened). They said tomorrow they will also leave their bags behind.
Swades is considered a cult classic today, but it didn’t do well when it was released. How was this taken by you, Ashutosh Gowariker and others?
It didn’t just didn’t do well. It was a so-called flop. One can do the best film in the world with the best actors, best director and give my best performance as a DoP. But if the film flops or doesn’t do well at the box office, we all sink with it. And you can do the shittiest film with the shittiest star cast with the shittiest script with a shittiest director and if the film is a hit, sab udte hain. It’s a fact. That’s how the cookie crumbles. So, post-Swades, as I told you, wasn’t an easy period for me. My next big release was Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi (2012).
I have known Ashutosh from the time he was a young actor. I don’t think it affected Ashu very much because he immediately moved on to his next project. Something like this affects the technicians more than the director. Of course, personally he must have felt terrible. He had put his heart and soul into Swades.
I don’t know why it didn’t work. Today, it’s a cult film. It’s one of the most watched films on television. Ashu and I laugh about it saying this film is like a millstone around our neck. Wherever he or I go, people only want to talk about Swades. There is no greater joy than having people appreciate your work on screen. No money can compensate for that.
More Pages: Swades Box Office Collection , Swades Movie Review
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