FOUR CANADIANS ARE BOLLYWOOD BOUND
by Kumkum Ramchandani
 

Ruby Bhatia, well known veejay, actress and emcee, has a deeply spiritual side to her which is revealed for the first time in Bollywood Bound, a Canadian documentary. To her fans, mostly people of Indian origin who span the globe, she is the “masala girl” discovered by satellite TV, the epitome of western glamour mixed with eastern spice. Who could imagine that the bubbly, dazzlingly attractive ex-Miss India-Canada from Ajax, Ontario, finds her true self in spiritual contemplation and the belief that all the material glamour of this world is transitory, just a passing phase before one meets one’s Maker?

Thirty four year old Nisha Pahuja, the Canadian director of Bollywood Bound, told Weekend in an interview, “After she saw the completed film, Ruby was quite upset about the personal portrayal of herself. She felt that people would think she has gone off the deep end. However, in the end, she has reconciled herself to the role. It also helps that we had become close friends!”

The film, released this year in Canada and India, is a one and a half hour long film about four Indo-Canadian youngsters who, dazzled by the bright lights and fame of Bollywood, make their way to the filmi capital Mumbai to try their luck. For Ruby Bhatia, fame on satellite TV was almost instantaneous, but the odds against the other three are overwhelming. The greatest stumbling block - all their conceptions of Indian culture are gleaned from Hindi films which they have watched avidly from childhood.

The documentary, financed by the National Film Board of Canada, NFB, has deeply explored the personal lives of the four stars of the film. It is a very real depiction of what they go through as they face the ups and (mostly) downs of getting screen tests and being promised an entry into the glittering world of celluloid. It offers a glimpse into their lives in Canada where they inevitably face a sense of alienation leading to a search for their Indian roots, the close knit love of parents and family so at odds with the common perception of western life and to some extent, the disillusionment of dreams coming crashing down about their ears.

The film, a first time venture for Nisha Pahuja, was completed over three years with a budget of 500,000 Canadian dollars provided by the NFB. Shooting was carried out by a multiethnic crew over two major periods of 4 weeks and 7 weeks in India. Minor scenes were shot later. “The bulk of the filming took about two and a half months but the editing took a long time, about 6 months spread out over one year,” said the director, who confesses to being “obsessive“ and a “perfectionist“.

For Pahuja, whose own parents immigrated to Canada in the seventies and struggled hard to eke out a meagre living initially, the subject is very close to the heart. She, too, was brought up on a diet of Hindi movies.

“I have a similar relationship to Hindi films as the people in the documentary,” the director explained. “For Indians in Canada, Hindi films are a way of discovering themselves, a way to “go home” and understand one’s culture”. Of course, there is a sense of escapism, not only in Hindi films but in all musicals, a feeling that one can make amazing leaps into make believe worlds, not tied to any earthbound conventions! My ethnic background is very important to me, it defines who I am. It can be awkward but in many ways it can be very very liberating.”

Only now, points out Pahuja, young Indian Canadians of her generation are making a statement for themselves in Canada, breaking out from their conventional moulds of “trying to be white” and forging their own identity.And in a country that allows for diversity, it can be a wonderful experience.

The film uses the stories of the four main leads in differing clips interspersed with appropriate filmi songs and sequences. There are flashbacks to lives in picturesque Canada, parents weeping at parting from their children, and in India, bumbling attempts at Bollywoodian dancing, interviews with film directors, the exhausting phone calls to agents and procrastinating directors and the typical snags “Indian shtyle” which are so alien to the Canada-raised youngsters. Only Ruby Bhatia, who has lived in India for 6 years, is more resigned to her fate.

The film opens with a song by Amir Khan in which he is clad in sequins and leather. This is what handsome Albertan Vikram Dhillon ( height:6’1” and chest:42”) is aspiring to be. He is shown driving into Bandra and his first reaction is that there must be more to Bollywood. This soon turns into a resigned shrug.

Says Vikram, “I always wanted to be Amitabh Bachchan, jumping off buildings in slow motion, grabbing a girl, not saying much. He really inspired me, this tall, lanky guy who is full of attitude.”

The camera pans to Vancouver, Canada, where another Bollywood bound Miss India-Canada, Neeru Bajwa, says nostalgically, “Even as a child I always imagined myself on the big screen. I remember my mother had this tree house and me and my friends would pretend we were living in a village in India, we were poor (laughs self-consciously) and wanted to marry boys whom our parents didn’t like. Just like in the movies!”

Neeru left school in Grade 10 to pursue her filmi dream. There is a poignant shot of her walking through the school corridors all dressed up in a sari and gold jewellery as flabbergasted school mates give way in wonder to let her sail through. A sad Hindi song plays in the background. Neeru says of her schooling experience, “I didn’t like it, I didn’t have too many friends.”

Ruby painfully remembers what her parents told her. “My parents said you will never be white, no matter what you do, you are coloured, your skin will always be coloured, so you better be proud of your heritage. Week days we would be totally Canadian but on weekends we would be totally Indian. I would wear salwar kameez, go to Indian functions and festivals, dance to filmi songs. It’s funny how we didn’t really know the difference between Hindi films and Indian life!”

She says wryly, “Indian Canadians are always trying to grab this vague concept of being Indian. We sort of latch on to it by watching Hindi films and thinking that’s reality!”

For Indo-Canadians trying to make it big in Bollywood, it is a Catch-22 situation where they are caught between two worlds. In Canada, they’re “too Indian” and in India they’re “too Canadian”! Says Ken Ghosh, a Bollywood director, “Many NRIs are coming into Bollywood now. If they can get rid of their accents it is good. They have a better chance in television though as they have been accustomed to a more mature media.”

Says Vekeana, Vikram’s sister, who is also trying to make it to the big screen, “Because you’re from abroad, people in Bollywood think you’re “easy”…..they try and swing you towards vampish roles.” She gets rid of her Canadian twang for the moment and says in passable Hinglish, “This what they say: you have to compromise….that means wearing a 2 piece bikini!”

There are moments of extreme sadness in the documentary. There is nothing manufactured about this, it is spontaneous and absolutely real. The most poignant is the experience of Neeru, who leaves a tearful mother behind and excitedly makes her way to Bollywood with her supportive cousin, Neelam Brar.

From the first day on landing in India, one can see the strain of tiredness on Neeru’s face as the two young women make their way to their hotel. She is already complaining of mosquitoes and heat. By day five, Neeru and Neelam are visibly flagging, disheartened by the ever elusive screen tests and dodgy agents and directors. Mumbai is hot, humid and smelly and the two are dressed inappropriately in tight black clothes and high heels. They are harassed by street beggars, ogled by roadside romeos and realise that even making a public phone call back home to Canada is fraught with inconveniences.

At one stage, a tearful Neeru sighs dejectedly “I hate this city, I hate the pollution, heat and the people. I just wanna go home.”

Neeru’s predicament was most painful for Nisha, the director. It was a direct confrontation with the rawness of life, but true to her profession, she captured it accurately on film. “We often forgot that we were in front of the camera. Some of the footage was very very moving as the actors revealed their true feelings,” she explained.

Equally moving was Vikram and Vekeana’s emotions on the plight of their parents. The older Dhillons, who had lost their oldest child in a car accident, abandoned their fish and chip business in Canada to allow their children to pursue their dreams in Bollywood. However, lack of any viable work left the family in dire financial straits.

Recalls Vekeana, her voice breaking, “At one stage we were standing in the parking lot of the hospital looking at our non-existent bank balance and wondering what we would do.” The elderly Mrs Dhillon was a very sick woman suffering from severe heart problems and diabetes. Vikram revealed his utter dejection when he said that it was unbearable to see his parents being brought back to life with shock therapy and injected with huge syringefuls of medicines as a result of allowing their children to pursue their dreams.

But after six months of prevarication and running from screen test to screen test, the brother and sister got work as veejays on Channel V and some money started rolling in.

For Ruby Bhatia, six years in the music world have taken their toll and she is beginning to question her material status. She wants to do something meaningful, something intellectual. She wants to become the “Oprah Winfrey of Indian television” so that she can make people think about important issues. She says wistfully, “I went from one extreme to the other extreme - from a student of Philosophy to the most superficial industry imaginable!”

Ruby ponders about the strong role that destiny plays in life. “I didn’t know I would be a star, be rich, be famous. Who knew? Not my parents, not me. Taking part in the Miss India-Canada 1993 pageant was the one-off freaky thing I did which changed my life completely and flipped me around five times flinging me into outer space - I think coming to India was like flinging me into outer space….”

Bitterness about life in India jostles with a tentative optimism for all four members of the cast. Over time, Neeru says she is beginning to get used to India. She had to come back hurriedly to Canada as her grandmother fell very sick but she is back in Bollywood now still doggedly pursuing her dream. Vikram, who eventually started his own TV production company, is optimistic that things will work out while Vekeana is planning to write for various magazines. Ruby has been approached by CNN and hopes that she will be able to do more meaningful programmes. There is the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.

As for director Nisha Pahuja, her tryst with Bollywood is far from over. Her next project is also about the filmi world but it has more fiction in it. “It is more abstract, more experimental,” is all she would say. For this director, Bollywood Bound is just stage one of the neverending saga of the cine world which will never cease to fascinate Indian Canadians.