Things Have Changed, We Are No More Equal: A Veteran Lightman In Bollywood

Ashraf Sayed loves a good story. A custodian of earthquake folklore, he narrates a night in 1993 when cracks in the earth travelled over 14 miles from Killari in Latur only to be halted by the tomb of the patron saint of Nilanga, his village in Maharashtra. 바카라�For any story to be powerful,바카라� the 64 year-old lightman in the Hindi film industry believes, 바카라�it needs to store dramatic memories, something unforgettable. Say바카라�like the pandemic,바카라� he points, 바카라�it reminded us that darkness always looms behind the camera. And light doesn바카라�t always reflect.바카라�

In Marol바카라�s Chimatpada 바카라� one of the many colonies on the fringes of Mumbai바카라�s Film City that supply body doubles, light crew and spot boys to surrounding film studios바카라�work calls dried up as soon as the pandemic hit. Shoulders like Sayed바카라�s that had supported the multi-billion dollar industry suddenly found themselves helpless, desperate and ignored. 바카라�All were left to fend for themselves. Everyone failed us, even the actors who came alive with our lights. That indifference shook us. We became our own sad movie바카라�we learnt a blunt lesson,바카라� he says, clutching a musical photo album that featured him with actors on film sets he had helped build.

바카라�Bin-ticket Latur se aya tha바카라� (I had travelled from Latur without a ticket), recalls Sayed, a seventh standard dropout, confirming the inter-generational script that early migrants to the city narrate of their first train journey to Bombay. His days would start with a bath at 4 am at the municipality hand pump under the Wadala sky, followed by a daily train ride to Bhayander metal yards, where he welded aluminium trunks to earn a daily wage of three rupees. 바카라�Tab Mira road sirf namak tha바카라� (Mira Road was simply salt), he recalls. The windows of local trains offered moving sights to its migrants, even as its compartments바카라�packed elbow-elbow바카라� turned everyday encounters into strange reunions between a tired and toiling working class. On weekends it was Juhu-Chowpatty or Gateway 바카라� 바카라�Aajkal ka half chaddi nahi tha Bambai. Full pant pehente te tab log. Decent the.바카라� (Unlike today바카라�s shorts, men wore full pants in Bombay. They were decently dressed.)

After a decade of juggling one odd job after another, Sayed finally found himself behind a Jimmy Jib camera crane on a film set in Bombay. He felt good returning home having seen Salman Khan do a scene on a railway track. His daily wage: two crisp 100-rupee notes. Visuals in the 90s meant music video shoots, innovative film sets, Saroj Khan, heavy make-up, women in Amriki pants and a minimum of eight days shooting for a song sequence of six minutes. It was also the 90s when as a crane aid, he saw a woman director (Mira Nair) direct 바카라�a whole movie.바카라� Finally, it was in 2000 during the shooting of Lagaan and Refugee바카라�both films shot in Bhuj and surrounding villages in Kutch district of Gujarat바카라�that Sayed held his first lights. Since then, he has held the lights that followed Jackie Chan바카라�s acrobatics on wire, elevated the light atmosphere in iconic songs like 바카라�Dola Re바카라� from Devdas, reflected the starkness of the snow off an actor바카라�s face in Russia and assisted multiple Indian and foreign crews overall.

On a movie set, a lightman takes instructions from the cameraman and is the most vital chain in a visual story; their deft eyes and hands fix the tone and texture of the movie through a variety of high key to low key light techniques. From holding camera magazines and reflectors dictating the 바카라�discipline of a shot바카라�, to handling green screens and computers with assistant directors repeatedly ordering 바카라�one safety shot more, one safety shot more,바카라� Sayed has seen it all. 바카라�When one shoots from a space of excess, it바카라�s bound to reflect in the movie,바카라� he says. 바카라�The language which only natural sunlight brought into a scene has gone. In the 90s and till the early 2000s, cameramen shot entire movies with camera magazines, so every person on set바카라�from the director and the actors to the lightman바카라�was in the loop. Every captured minute was precious and done perfectly within limited shots,바카라� he adds.

Today, however, the pandemic has changed conversations from craft to survival. Once the lockdown was announced, pockets like Chimatpada survived through networks of brotherhood and 바카라�Cheques from Salman Khan, the lone actor who responded.바카라� Even before the pandemic,  Chimatpada didn바카라�t have it easy; a new set of migrants were scooping the earth to build the city바카라�s metro tunnel, and families above the ground listened to the sounds coming from several feet below their homes with their ears cocked to the floor at nights, as if trying to cajole the shuddering earth. Post pandemic, his neighbour바카라�also a lightman바카라� has lost his job to cost cutting. Another stunt actor is on call most days, having failed to get assignments. One lane behind him, a father of a production boy has died from lack of good health care. A spot boy has left to find a better job after payment cheques got delayed. Most youth in these lanes now have taken to feeding the city on their bikes.

It바카라�s in such personal stories, he says, that everything matters. 바카라�You are standing alert all the time, sometimes through the twelve-hour shift.바카라� Sayed has cleared just two cheques this month, of movies he did eight months ago. 바카라�The money doesn바카라�t come fast anymore. And movie budgets don바카라�t reach us. Unions also don바카라�t voice our struggles.바카라�

It바카라�s not the same anymore, says the man whose two favourite movies still remain Jeena Ki Raah and Do Raaste. He stopped watching movies long ago바카라�바카라�Story kaha hain aaj kal?바카라� (Where is the story these days?) On set, the men behind the cameras and cranes바카라�the lightsmen and spot boys바카라�predict if the movie will work. 바카라�Tajurba바카라� he says, indicating his experience of having  helped make movies.

Film sets, he says, are where people like him become invisible, and, at times, no amount of light helps. 바카라�Have you heard of Category B food바카라�reserved for lighting and spot boys? The big hierarchies from director to make-up artists have Category A food, which has a variety of meat and vegetables; they are the ones for whom sturdy chairs are made available to sit and eat. Even their rice granules have a shape. By the time we come down from makeshift cabins built at 30 feet height, where the cranes hold light bulbs, we mostly have to stand as the chairs are all taken by those served Category A food. Our food is below average and kept separate, served in a different queue. Even the ice cream is sad바카라�it바카라�s runny and water-like. There is this really bad quality daal and the food doesn바카라�t even appeal at times,바카라� he says. 바카라�When it바카라�s time to eat, we often try to ease the situation among us by joking that municipality food has arrived for us, for we are commoners. In the 90s and till a decade ago, all were equal. Everyone made the movie together,바카라� he recalls.

바카라�Budget is never discussed and it바카라�s only in news reports we hear the crores in cost. At work, it바카라�s difficult to eat when we hear such numbers. In fact it바카라�s 바카라�Category B바카라� who work harder and who should be treated a lot more humanely. I tell this to myself to ease the situation in my head.바카라�  As he walks past his neighbourhood, he points to the cranes that are working around his home. A survey number scrawled outside their homes is a promise they will be assigned a new house once the metro starts running.

바카라�In the evenings, when we men and women come home from the sets we carry so many secrets from the sets. We hear and see things. These chawls are where those secrets come to die바카라� in here live our stories. Even today I just work hard, finish my shift and come home to watch the news. Reality is starker these days,바카라� says Sayed. 바카라�Movies don바카라�t reflect our lives anymore.바카라�

(This appeared in the print edition as "Stories in Light and Dark")

(Views expressed are personal)

Smita Nair is an independent journalist based in Bombay