Friday, April 20, 2007

Alea Iacta Est

Yes the die has been cast I guess!

After the paranormal phenomenon :) described with much intensity in my previous post (the one before the Steve Jobs Stanford speech), normally I would have taken a chill pill and gotten back to life.

But somehow I have stuck by it and I submitted my resignation on 11th April. I chose this hallowed date as Nanhe Jaisalmer was supposed to release on 11th May. Hence, that would mean that I quit on the day my first project is released in the thetares with my humble contribution to its marketing in terms of a couple of events and a newspaper tie-up. Later, the release date of Nanhe got postponed even further but thankfully my relieving date from MATES still remains the same... 11th May.

This was followed by a trip home, broke down in front of Ma and Baba. Explained how fucked up every day at work was, that I couldnt tolerate the dreariness and boredom of corporate life. Ma understood and sympathised, Baba told me not to lose mental peace and I was back in Mumbai with a big load off my chest.

So, in all likelihood after spending more than 9 months here in MATES, I will be leaving without seeing the release of a single project I have worked on. All the films that I worked on ran into one sort of thing or the other.

Jaan-e-mann: Made detailed marketing plan but Sajid Nadiadwala decided to do the marketing on his own, the movie flopped even though it was far better than DON which basically killed Jaan-e-mann with its SRK led marketing blitz
Om Shanti Om: Made as many as 9 versions of presentations detailing out our strategy for SRK's Diwali 2007 release. The plan was presented to director Farah Khan and executive producer Bobby Chawla. Both ho-hummed through it and we were told that it needs to be presented to Shahrukh Khan and we've been trying to meet the man for 3 months now
Babul, Water, Naya Daur: Countless meetings with Sanjay Bhutiani at B R Films office and countless chais, a few more meetings with Sanjay Bhutiani at J W Marriott and some coffee... loads of presentations, hours of discussions but nothing fell in place. What a waste... but then I was getting used to the routine of planning and not seeing execution...
Nanhe Jaisalmer: The film was supposed to be released in December 06.. made plans, film got postponed. Film supposed to be released in April 07... made plans, film got postponed. Film supposed to be released in May 07... made plans, film got postponed. Now, I have no idea when the film will release.
Mera Bharat Mahaan: Made detailed plan, presnted, created media tie-ups... and the film got postponed. Now the film is goin on floors in May but I will be out of this place by then.

So the following conclusions can be drawn:
Normal Conclusion: I need to stick around longer coz things in the film industry are inherently uncertain and hence take time
Para-normal conclusion: God doesnt want me to see success in this job coz then I will not think of quitting and following my film-making dreams. The message is loud and clear: Go out and achieve your dreams.

As always, the question is about choice, what you want to believe and what you want to dismiss as utopian illusions. I, quite expectedly, choose the paranormal conclusion... and hence the resignation was sincerely typed out and given to my boss.

So now that the die has been cast where does it leave me post 11th May 2007?
First things first, it leaves me without a job. How do I plan to tackle this?

Optimal situation:
- I get admission to the 9 month Film and TV production course at Xavier's Institute of Communications.
- I get a nice part-time job in a CAT training institute or a HR Training company
- I earn good money working 3-4 hours a day, watch lots of movies, read lots of books on film-making and attend my course
- I write a couple of scripts too :)

Sub-Optimal situation:
- I dont get admission to the XIC course
- I join a director/editing studio and slog it out

In either scenario, life will change drastically after 11th May.. and I am excited about it!!!

Coming back to the quote that triggered it all of:
"When you really want something, the whole world conspires to help you achieve it"

I was expecting Ram Gopal Verma and Farhan Akhtar to come begging at my doorstep but that hasnt quite happened yet. However, what has happened is that lot of people from the film industry have mailed back to my queries on Ryze. Small words of encouragement from these people mean a lot.

Sudeep has offered to take half the load of the 5000 per month insurance deposit - a sword that hangs on my neck for another 2 years. Met an ex-colleague Suchismita Burman from Mercer out of nowhere, was offered monetary help upfront... declined. She is now helping me with contacts for a part-time job as well as contacts in the film industry.

Accha lagta hai :)

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