At one time Mumbai had a plethora of shooting floors – at Natraj, Navrang, R.K, Kamalistan, Mehboob, Mohan – floors that were linked to banners & great film makers. But over a period of time it became more commercially viable to construct residential and commerical complexes on studio land, rather than let them out at 15k per day. Today, in Mumbai the main floors are at Film City, Sankraman, Famous and Mehboob. The rest are gone.

Shooting Floors aka shooting studios – have their own unique eco-system. Different from the shooting bunglows that dot Madh or Juhu; different from the multiple pre constructed ‘locations’ that are the mainstay of places like Jaipan … shooting floors are giant cavern like structures – with no beams or columns ;where you can put up a set.

Last week we were shooting at Sankraman – in Aarey. The same sankraman that was the home to the bulk of the Balaji soaps that used to be on most channels. If you had gone there a year ago – you would seen it buzzing with activity. This year, it was akin to driving into a ghost town. The place looks seriously run down & desolate. Even the studio dogs – looked lean and bored.

Shooting on a floor is a trip in itself. I have spent over a decade and a half on various shoot floors that dot Mumbai. I can’t explain the lightheartedness that i feel when i am on a floor – or the sense of homecoming when my car drives in thro’ a gate of a floor complex – or the adrenalin rush by simply stepping into one of these areas ….

(outside every floor will be a gate keeper – who controls the movement of people in and out of a studio. afterall, when you are spending an average of between 25 and 35 thousand per hour (without talent cost) – the last thing that you need is people to distract the shooting process and multiple retakes)

(not so much graffiti, as much as testing colours – seriously. )

(shoot floors can get hellishly hot. Think of a cavernous structure with no ventilation – with around anything between 50 and 300 KW of lights, sometimes more – then you are talking of serious heat. When i began my career the number of AC floors were few. Thankfully, that has changed. Needless to say – the power bills are huge)

(there is something about studios that attracts dogs in droves. Possibly the fact that when you have to feed an army of people, there are always leftovers. And, where there are leftovers – there are dogs, and their pups. But, with the end of the Balaji hegemony on TV – and with the number of shows being shot outside Mumbai on the rise — even dogs at Sankraman wear a famished look)

(we who shoot are a superstitious lot. if you really look at it – an hour on the shoot floor is about 15k to 35 k without the cost of sets or artists. It is expensive. can’t afford any f***ups. And, given the number of people on a shoot floor, the constant flurry of activity, lots of moving parts, tons of electronics and lots of electricity – not to mention an ego and a half per person – it helps to have stuff that wards off mishaps. If you told us that wearing a bring magenta scarf with bright green polka dots will ward off mishaps — you will possibly see a fair number of people wearing that the following day)