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Thursday, December 01, 2005

UK tourist in Goa to relive 'Taal' heyday

Tony Tharakan

Seven years ago, a Britishtourist in India walked on to the set of SubhashGhai's 'Taal,' worked as an extra for a day and walkedaway. Circa 2005, Pip Gascoigne is back. In Goa for theInternational Film Festival of India, the 41-year-oldhopes to hobnob with the stars once again.

He hadn't realised it at the time but the two-bitsequence in the Bollywood blockbuster was to be hisclaim to fame years later. "One day I was walking down a street in New Delhiand this kid kept pointing to me and mouthing 'Taal,'"says Gascoigne.

"It was then that I realised the power of cinemain India. My face was shown in the movie for someseconds and yet this kid managed to identify me fromamong the thousands of foreigners around," he says. Gascoigne, who has his own construction businessin London, had been introduced to the casting agent of'Taal' by a mutual friend and decided to do the moviefor a lark.

"It certainly wasn't for the money although theydid paid me Rs 3,500 for the day's work. I just wantedto have some fun," he says. The Briton did two scenes in the movie for whichhe had to cut his hair short and put on a fakemoustache. For his first scene, Gascoigne was requiredto make some women members of the cast laugh. "I have no idea who they were but Aishwarya Raiwas certainly not one of them," he says.

"I was supposed to be talking and making themlaugh in that particular sequence. I didn't know howto do that so I ended up telling them some jokesinstead," he adds. Gascoigne's second scene featured a close-up ofhim speaking to actor Anil Kapoor.

"I realised how professional the Indian actorsare. They do so many takes to get the perfect shot,"he said adding that he got the scene right afterseveral takes. A white suit specially stitched for him has beenkept by Gascoigne as a reminder of his short stint inBollywood.

Back in London, he watches Hindi movies on cabletelevision, harking back to the one moment when heshared screen space with Indian filmstars. Now in Goa for IFFI 2005, Gascoigne hopes to getanother chance to perform under the arclights.

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