Getting some stardust as an extra in Bollywood is a dream come true, says Anuradha Varma

For the Westerner or Indian abroad, getting some stardust as an extra in Bollywood is a dream come true, says Anuradha Varma

Want a piece of Bollywood? Become an extra. It’s great fun and requires minimal effort, blogs ‘Sydney Girl’, a foreigner who got the role of an extra in Bollywood. Hang out in Mumbai’s Colaba and at Café Leopolds, and sooner, rather than later, ‘scouts’ or “shady-looking men wearing sunglasses” will approach you and ask you to be in a film. “When you get to the cafe in the morning, there should be a big crowd of other Westerners waiting to be taken to the set on a bus.”
Grateful hopefuls write their responses, asking, “Do you get to dance?” She did, but even if most don’t, they are on for the ride of a lifetime.

On another set in Phuket, Thailand, ‘Fiddlehead’ blogs about a famous Bollywood action star “Akshar Kumar” who is “very tall, big and macho and always fussing with his hair.” Elsewhere, ‘Sitaji’ blogs with delight on spotting a group of long blonde-haired, mandolin-playing ‘extras’ in Kismat Connection, “It’s the kind of extra work that I’d be proud to do! Wouldn’t you?”

New Yorker Christine L Ka’aloa, who blogs as ‘Grrl Traveler’, got lucky when she responded to a casting call for ‘extras’ in the city, for Kurbaan, starring Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor. “I couldn’t resist,” says Christine, who has been “crazy” about Bollywood films ever since her sister got a DVD of Kal Ho Na Ho. Next on her list is to be a Bollywood dance extra!

She recalls, “The scene we shot was on a small boat touring around the Statue of Liberty, so everyone was treated a bit more like family. Everyone had to share the same space, even the stars! Yes, Saif and Kareena were in the same waiting room between takes. In Hollywood, crew are second in hierarchy to the stars and generally don’t interact with extras.”
New Zealander Mark W Beale, the author of The Highway, set in India, decided to become part of a Hindi film as research for his novel. He says, “While travelling in India, the films started to make sense, as I got to know the country. The exuberance, energy and humour were refreshing and attractive.”

He was in Pune when he decided to try his luck in Bollywood. “So I took the train to Mumbai and hung around Colaba. I was recruited that afternoon for a music video shooting for one night only. I asked the assistant director if I could get on a movie. Only if I was willing to go to a city called Pune, she said. I had to travel all the way to Mumbai for just 12 hours to get a job back in Pune.”

Mark found himself on the sets of The Legend of Bhagat Singh. He says, “Ajay Devgn was gracious enough to meet many of the extras and take photos. He had tremendous charisma. Extras are basically moving props, but Rajkumar Santoshi, the director, was patient with us. In one scene I had to run up to a tree, take cover and fire a pistol. I ran into the ‘tree’ – and it moved! It was a painted moving prop too. We did a retake on that one...” The food, he recalls, was a “surprisingly good buffet” and the pay, “about Rs 800 a day, and 2,000 if you had a line.”
Christine asserts, “Kurbaan was shot in New York and there were certain US standards to abide by. Non-union extras on a big budget feature in NYC make $75 per day, while in LA they make $50 per day.”

Starting from Mera Naam Joker to Lagaan, Kal Ho Na Ho, Swades, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna and My Name Is Khan, foreigners have graced the background to add to the authenticity of foreign locales. In fact, a group of five Karan Johar fans, all of Indian origin, who started a website to “stalk” the director, also got lucky when they were cast as extras in MNIK.
San Francisco-born Leena Kamat, an attorney and Bollywood singer-songwriter, used her stalking skills via Twitter to discover the hotel Karan was putting up at in the city. Some more investigation led to the group dropping off their CVs for a casting call. Says Leena, “I got to learn how acting really is hard work, even for extras, as we had to wait for long periods in the sun for many technicalities to be taken care of.”

Recalls her friend and fellow ‘stalker’ Ashish Chand, “In one particular scene, Karan stood right in front of me to direct the scene. If I had any breath in my lungs at that moment, I would have been breathing down his neck. Being called to the front of the crowd to stand right next to Shah Rukh Khan for a scene is something I’ll never forget for as long as I live.” He adds, “How many people around the world can say they got to act with SRK and Kajol?”
We’re sure other wannabe ‘extras’ are tuning in!