Chapter 7:- Roll, Camera, Action!

Their first scene together...how many troubles does this bring?

Next Day

I woke up with a loud alarm ringing in my ears. I checked the time: 8:15 am. I shot up in bed. Today’s shoot was supposed to start at the lake; Faisal and my first scene together. And I was already late. The director had instructed me to reach the set at 8:45 am sharp. I hurried to the bathroom to get ready.

“Mom, I am going!” I called out to my mom as I re-checked if I took everything.

“Wait, at least have breakfast Roshni!” My mom stopped me.

“Mumma, I have no time at all… I am already late.”

“Okay, let’s do one thing, take a sandwich so you can eat it on the way.” my mom gave a warm smile.

My face softened “Mom, you always have a solution to everything!”

     I panicked in the car, constantly checking my phone. 8:39 am.  

“You’ll reach on time, dear.” My mother assured.

“I don’t know why, but I feel I am going to be late!” I respond back. Suddenly, my phone rang, making me jump. I checked my phone, UNKNOWN NUMBER.

“Hello?”

“Hey!” I recognized the voice.

“How did you get my number?” I frowned curiously.

“I have many sources to get your number from, Ms. Walia” Faisal smirked.

“Yeah, right! Why did you call me right now?”

“Oh yeah! Where are you?! Everyone is waiting for you!” I bit my lip in nervousness.

“I am just on my way!”

“See you soon then!” he hung the phone.

I was already late! The car soon slowed down as the set neared. Another ring buzzed on my phone as I opened the door to my car. Jannat.

“Roshni!” she panicked.

“What happened Jannat? Is everything alright?” I got worried

“No, not exactly… I don’t know what to wear!”

“Seriously Jannat!” I exclaimed. This was my crazy best friend.

“Where are you right now?”

“I just arrived at the set!”

“What? I am so confused Roshni, help me!” she whined.

“Oh God Jannat! You are getting confused on such a small thing? Just wear whatever you want to. You will have to change once you come anyways.” I calmed her down.

“Oh yeah! I completely forgot!” she started giggling. I soon joined her; these were some of the many silly antics.

“Come on, get ready or else you’ll be late!”

“Hey!” Faisal greeted, interrupting our conversation. Which was when I realized that I was walking all this while.

“Hi!”

“Who are you talking to Roshni?” Jannat asked through the phone. I completely forgot about her.

“Oh, it’s Faisal, the lead actor of Maharana Pra-”

“Faisal? As is Faisal Khan! You met him?” Jannat interrupted in excitement. It was then that I remembered that she hadn’t met him.

“Yeah, yesterday evening…. Hold up Jannat, I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay, bye!” the call got disconnected and I looked up at him.

“You know, you’re already late… and you are busy talking on the phone!”

“It was Jannat! And, I did not call her, she did! She was confused on what to wear!”

Faisal burst into laughter. He could not believe what he heard.

“She was confused on what to WEAR! I doubt she knows how to act!” I shook my head in disappointment.

“You surely are not what you act in front of the everyone.”

“Told you so!”

“Where is Jannat!” the director screamed annoyedly. We all were ready apart from her. Today was definitely not a good day for her; at least not a good start to the day. Although she arrived at the sets on time, but it had been 20 minutes and she was still getting ready in her vanity room.

“Sir, should I go and see..” I suggested.

“No! She should be serious about the show!” The director was furious.

“No one has ever turned up so late!” he added. I glanced at Faisal who was standing right in front of me. He shook his head as he mouthed “Aaj toh Jannat gayi kaam se!”

“Sorry, sir!” Jannat huffed as arrived, 30 minutes late.

“May I know the reason behind your delay, Ms. Zubair!”

“Umm, my mother is very ill, sir. So I had to prepare breakfast.”

“Okay, come on get ready to shoot!” the director ordered.

I rushed to Jannat. “How is Aunty? I was not aware that she was sick.”

“Oh no, she isn’t! I just had to say it to avoid from any further troubles.” I stared wide-eyed at her.

“You lied, Jannat!” I stared as she giggled.

“It’s fine….don’t worry!” she brushed it off.

…

“Ready?” Faisal asked.

“Don’t you think the water will be a bit cold, though?” I asked?

“We have to do it, right?” He looked at me. Sometimes, he behaved in such a mature manner, I couldn’t believe he was the one I was chased by yesterday.

“Hmm.” I nodded

“Let’s do this then!

…

After shooting a lot of retakes, we finally succeeded in pleasing the director.  As a reward, he granted us an hour of free time. All of us gathered around as I introduced Jannat to everyone.

“This is Vishal! He portrays the role of Akbar!” I beamed.

“Hi!” she exclaimed to which Vishal responded with a ‘Hey!’

After introducing Jannat to everyone, I finally came to Faisal. “Jannat, this is Faisal…he plays the role of..”

“Maharana Pratap!” Jannat screamed. Faisal and I both shut our eyes in anticipation.

“Sorry, I heard so much about you.. and I really wanted to meet you! Oh, I forgot to tell you my name…” Jannat began.

“Jannat! Calm down” I sighed. Sometimes my best friend got too hyper.

Faisal’s eyes were wide open, as if he just came out of a horror movie. I snapped my fingers at him to grab his attention.

“Faisal! Where are you lost?!”

 Suddenly, Jannat’s phone buzzed and she took it out to receive it. “Mom’s call, Roshni… I’ll see you in a while.”

“Sure!” I nodded.

“Is she always like this?” Faisal whispered as soon as Jannat went off at a distance.

“Why?” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“No offense, wasn’t she too excited.”

“Come on Faisal! She met you for the first time!” I reasoned.

“Yeah, but..”

“Faisal, Roshni!” the director interrupted.

“Seems like it’s time to shoot again.” I smiled.

…

“Wasn’t that like DDLJ! Too filmy!” I remarked. We just shot a sequence with us bumping into each other in the corridor. Endless flowers were cued to shower on us as we performed our first eye-lock.

“Yeah, the flowers were a bit over the top!” Faisal agreed.

“How did you think of the eye lock?” I hesitated nervously for his response. Why was I getting anxious?

“I think it went well… the directors seemed pleased with it.” he paused before admitting, “Though, I have never done one!”

I heard myself exhale a short sigh “Neither have I.”

Silence filled between us and I decided to change the topic.

“So… do you find speaking Ancient Hindi comfortable? I mean, it’s not how we speak regularly at home.”

“I am used to it now… though I still remember the first day of the show. I literally knew nothing. What about you?”

“I am still struggling, still trying to cope up..” “Though I don’t have many dialogues yet.”

“Hey guys!” Jannat shouted from 50 meters away. Why was she always so loud?! “You guys were amazing! I saw the whole sequence!”

“What!” Faisal and I shouted in disbelief.

“What?” Jannat mimicked us in the same tone.

Before Faisal could start arguing I asked,“ Were we okay? I mean, did the eye-lock look decent and real?” I did not want to disappoint all the viewers on our first episode together, certainly not after seeing their excitement. Faisal gave me a ‘Seriously’ frown to which I looked away.

“You guys looked so realistic! Lost in each other’s eyes! What were you thinking... or were you actually…”

“Stop it Jannat” I hushed her before she could continue any further. I did not want to face any embarrassment, at least not in front of him. I glanced at him from the corner of my eye and saw the constant frown on his face.

“Okay okay..” Jannat giggled. “Can you please come with me? I don’t know how to take off all these accessories…” she pleaded helplessly. A smile formed on my face seeing her antics.

“Sure…. go on, I’ll be there with you in a moment.” For some reason, I felt as if I had to give Faisal an explanation, as if he needed one. I turned around to face him and saw his look.

“What was that?” he asked surprised.

“Uhm…actually, I don’t really know what happened to her.” I explained. I had never seen Jannat behaving like that before.

“That was weird!” He chuckled. “ I mean, this is all part of acting, right?” He gazed straight into my eyes.

“Yeah...” I agreed, leaving my sentence unfinished. “I’ll go and check on Jannat.” I reminded. “She might be waiting for me.”

“Yeah, see you later!” I turned to go. Her questions; especially that one question that I never wanted to come up had created such an awkward silence.

But, her question was worth pondering upon. How did we shoot that eye lock? From all my past experiences, I had never performed a scene as such. And today, being the first time, I did it with such ease. It felt so…normal?

“Roshni!” I came out of my thoughts and saw Jannat standing behind me.

“Where were you heading off to?”

“Oh!” I realized. I had travelled way past her vanity room. “Coming!”