Hard work – It doesn\’t have a synonym.

Two topics on which I can always talk a lot at anytime of the day are cinema and cricket. When its the former, the experiences of making short films come in between my talks and sometimes I think, I overdo it a little bit. I don\’t know and I don\’t care how people take that because I am proud of my works. More than that, I am proud of the hard work I have put in each and everyone of it. Not many know that three short films have got cancelled in between or after the shoot, two works were announced but didn\’t happen and one work was planned in a big scale but could\’t conceive it. That makes it six; six such dreams haven\’t reached you people yet. Along with that one among the releases were a huge flop. But what still earns me self respect is the fact all these works including the unreleased and cancelled, had seen the same amount of effort and hard work. That is what I am proud of and that is why I talk a lot of about all these.

Slowly as days passed in my life in Institute of Creative Excellence in Mumbai, I realized there is no substitute to hard work. When I got my admission for training there, my friends had told me its going to be easier for you with the experience but trust me, it was more difficult than making a short film outside without any facilities. We had to do A-Z works and add to that was my lack of skills in Hindi. Often I have regretted my choice to go there but at some point, I realized it was a beautiful experience. Like I said, it taught me well enough that there is no substitute to hard work. Hard work is something every individual wants to put in but either they are too lazy or they complaint about it after doing it. That moment is when failure calls them. One of my batchmates there was an aggressive hard worker, coming from a comparatively lower background but with higher dreams. The faculties often used to appreciate the amount of effort he puts in but the problem he always had to face is his own anger. Yes, even I am short tempered and I did get angry on the sets. But the difference I noticed between him and me is, once temper gets into him he loses his focus on the works whereas aggressiveness fire me up to do it more keenly.

There was only one female in my Direction batch and embarrassingly for the eight guys, including me, nobody ever came close to the commitment, dedication and effort that lady had put in her works from the word go. I considered myself lucky at times to be a part of her group because I could concentrate and focus on scripting and performance when she did all the arrangements. But what hurt me always is the fact whatever the effort she puts in just didn\’t come on the screen. That broke her as well but she never gave up. She came back more stronger in the next project but then, there was a change in format. Two \’veterans\’ were added to our group who didn\’t know a word about what is going on. That didn\’t discourage her though. Before every shoot, we had to go to the properties room to take the necessary properties and then costumes, if needed. Though all these are in the same campus, it was hectic to walk there during rainy season and also serial shoots were going on in Balaji campus. I don\’t remember which project it was, when I came out of the ICE building looking out for her, I saw her coming out from the properties with a huge baseboard full of stuffs, walking hurriedly through the slippery road. It was only in the same morning she told me, she is badly sick and the next sight was this. That, my friends, was pure dedication and love for the work.

Its always a pleasing sight when you have someone in your crew who works their heart out like this. It fires you up and lifts the whole energy level in the crew. During the shoot of \’Balcony\’, my associate director was that energy booster. Whenever I used to feel tired and think of taking a break, he will walk upto me and ask me what is the next shot. Though I used to get annoyed a little bit, I could see the hunger in him to work and make this project a huge success. After the release, I was talking to one of his friends and she told me \”Vigil is making sure, all his friends are watching it.\” That explains it.

When you want to create a group to work, let it be anything, make sure you take the best group. You should have the mindset to lead from the front and set an example on how to go about it. Its okay if you get lazy at times but make sure you have that one person in the group who can delete your laziness with their energy level at any point. Success will surely follow you then.

No, hard work simply doesn\’t have a synonym.