SIR RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH GANDHI

Excuse the Personal Pronoun; frankly, it is for self-aggrandizement.
Sir Richard Atttenborough was red with anger. He was trying to shoot a crowd scene for his film, Gandhi, in Delhi in December, 1980, and the crowd was not co-operating - or so he thought.
"Dave," he whispered to David Tomblin, his First Assistant Director, "show some anger. We don't have all the time in the world to do this scene."
Dave was the wrong man when it came to showing "some" anger. His typical British humour would bubble out of his wafer-thin seriousness all too often.
So Dave's make-believe anger was greeted with whistles and cat-calls. At this Saeed Jaffrey, who was playing the role of Sardar Patel, India's first Home Minister, in the film, decided to reason with the crowd of 1,200 plus. They listened to his Hindustani discourse resperctfully and silently, but again bungled the scene, as their movements were confused.
This, I thought, was my cue. I told Sir Richard the crowd did not understand English properly. Therefore they should be conditoned to sign language, whereby they would sit, stand or move according to directorial instructions, conveyed through the director's hands and arms. David instantly vetoed and said : "But they do understand English." (A statement upon which the Empire fell.) Irrepressible me : "Then why're they not following your instructions?" Ultimately, the scene was shot as per my plan.
A whispered conference took place between Sir Richard and his staff. Lovable, elderly Mr Smith, Gandhi unit's famous make-up artist wandered near and eyed me critically. Honestly, I dreamt that I was about to be made the star of the century by Sir Richard, as a reward for saving his shot. Alas, just as at the initial audition with Sir Richard, when co-producer Ms Rani Dube had intervened on my behalf for a bigger role and Sir Richard desired a mature, lined face - as opposed to my girlish, smooth face - this remained a dream.
Presently, Mr Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, impersonated by Roshan Seth in the film, asked Mr Smith to do his face. In the process, he spilled a bottle of water on a rickety table, thereby upsetting a prop. "Look out," I shouted, trying to save the Indo-British Films' suit I was wearing from getting wet. Sir Richard's secretary was visibly shaken by the incident. Somebody said : "Take it easy" and she groaned and almost swooned. Things would have got out of hand, but Sir Richard smothered her with kisses and that cooled her.

(To be Continued)