Bodyguard

I had just returned back from FTII, Pune as I did not get through the acting course out there. In spite of reaching the third and the last round, I could not make it. But I was not disappointed at all and felt I'd rather do something equally productive out here in Mumbai and I felt I should complete my Masters too.

It was December'11 and I was looking out for some freelance opportunities as the entrance for XIC was going to begin in April. One day, I randomly get a call from a friend asking whether I'd be interested to assist somebody in Casting. Well, I myself must have happened to go for infinite auditions but taking auditions myself? I felt it would be a nice way to understand what a Casting Director expects from an Actor.

So I agreed to meet upon the casting director and he said I am on board for the movie called - Bodyguard starring Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor. I was delighted and super excited. We began casting for the first schedule of the film. I began calling a few coordinators who use to call me for auditions to brief them about the various roles and if they could provide us with few actors. Suddenly, their tone used to change and some of them even began calling me 'Sir'. Yup I guess that's because the tables changed and I was the one who had to take a call. So I conducted vigorous auditions for several days until one day morning I left for Symbiosis College, Pune where the shooting was scheduled for. I met almost everyone from the cast and the crew and got friendly with them.

Day1: We left for the sets and what I happen to see????????? Salman Bhai is on the sets already. It was around 8.30am, he was before time and resting. His bodyguards were massaging him and a huge table of food was kept near his van. I couldn't believe my eyes. His Bodgyguards gave you that 'look-straight and walk' if you tried staring at him for too long. Days passed by and I got back to Mumbai and got busy with college and one fine day my casting director calls me for a special screening of the movie before its release.

I am sitting in the preview hall with close cast and crew of the film and of course we all loved the film and the credits are rolling over and hey wait - Casting Assistant - Varun Wazir. Wohooo that's me. I jumped out of joy. I frankly hadn't expected that. I ran to my casting director to thank him from all my heart. Yeah, it should have been Vazir but Wazir is fine too. :) I did feel like a big achievement and reminded myself to see that name with spelling corrections in the credits for Starring in -

My first copy for an Ad!

It was the month of May-June'12 as I had just begun my stint in Advertising as a Social Media Executive in Creativeland Asia and was like a new born baby who was scared to keep my foot anywhere. While I was figuring out my job profile, work etc I loved to hear new offline briefs and hear them brainstorm over ideas and it really fascinated me. My love for writing began while I started working at JAM magazine and though I was writing 'POSTS' for Facebook and Twitter, I wanted to write something for an offline medium.

One day I overheard my colleagues discussing some stuff over the brand - Appy Fizz. Honestly, I quite liked the copy which was lately written for Appy Fizz. I felt it quite suited my style of writing as I had a column in JAM called - Line By Line where I used to crack such one liners. So, I went up to a copywriter and asked him if I could contribute or rather help him if he gets too many briefs. He happily agreed and asked me to write few lines for Facebook to which I happily agreed and began thinking all the possible one liners I could. I sent him once, he liked few but did not use any. I sent him again, I doubt if he used that as well. Finally, one day he walks up to me and says, "Ek line sochna...Pasman restaurant ke liye. Yeh line delivery tray ke upar aayegi". I was delighted and this time I had to crack it.

I wrote, wrote and kept writing. I must have written at least 20+ lines out of which I really liked one and said "Ho gaya boss. You've cracked it". That left me quite happy and I left smiling from office that day. Days passed and I wanted to see how it actually got executed and out of curiosity I asked the client servicing guy if that line got executed. He said yes here it is and sent me a sample image.

Here's my first line as a Copywriter that got executed for Pasman restaurants in Pune.