It is decidedly unreal sitting in front of a coffee table with a large neon green frog on it -- the reptile featuring prominently in a standout scene from Del Toro's Oscar-winning masterpiece -- and Guillermo Navarro on the other end, smiling. The Mexican lensman has absolutely no issues with Mumbai's sweltering heat (even as Bhardwaj is boyishly enjoying shooting on an air-conditioned set) but complains about the traffic.
And the shouting. "There, nobody shouts. Everyone's talking into their radios," he says immediately when asked the big on-set difference between a Bollywood production and a Spanish one. And this isn't just because the sound-stages are too big to yell instructions. "Even on small, intimate indoor sets, nobody shouts. It's just because you don't want to disrupt the actors and directors." He pauses, takes a deep breath. "And it's not polite."
To be fair, Bhardwaj enjoys a far more civilised set than Bollywood's usual ruckus. His long-time assistants know exactly what they're doing, and there is a lot of barking into wireless radios. Navarro's settled into a comfortable rhythm with them, and the actors -- who are called on to do extreme histrionics in very tiny chunks. Navarro flirts casually with Ayesha before her shot, egging on the reticent Siddharth to make a move, and prompting Ayesha to warmly call Mexican men "charming."
Advertisement
