From idea / script to screen – the production of LITTLE TERRORIST was completed between Nov 2003 and March 2004, less than four months. The crew was assembled by Kumar’s Alipur Films in London via shootingpeople.org (an internet recruitment website) and all crew members worked free-of-cost and travelled to India at their own expense. On The Road Productions, a Los Angeles and Bombay based company headed by co-producer Dileep Singh Rathore, brought on line-producer Vans Pradeep Singh to stitch the Indian end of the production together.
Working to a shoe-string budget, an exciting shoot began with the crew welcoming in the New Year 2004 at a tented camp in the middle of the Rajasthan desert. The crew had to contend with freezing mornings and nights, a remote location and logistical nighmares.
Due to the limited budget and director Kumar’s insistence on authentic Rajasthani music for the film, several troupes of Laangar musicians auditioned for the cast and crew after wrap each night, under the stars, around a bon-fire. The selected group not only featured in the film but were called out to the wrap party where sound recordist Roland Heap, who works at Abbey Road as sound engineer, set up a virtual studio and recorded everything they sang that night. The rustic sounds of the desert add to BAFTA nominated composer Nainita Desai’s score and the laangar troupe not only provide the music in the film but also feature in it as the wandering misnstrals. What started as an improvised cost-saving impulse became a lyrical and unique fusion of Indian folk and a more traditional western composed film score.
A freak accident almost brought the production to an early close as the tent containing the film stock caught on fire and was burned to the ground. Brave members of Vans Pradeep’s crew ran into the burning tent to retrieve the stock.
In this remote desert location word spread quickly that a film was being shot. In the land of Bollywood, cinema-crazy tractor loads of villagers from far-flung villages poured onto the set with wives, children, dressed in their best as if for a day-out to the circus. Two hundred villagers crowded dangerously on the lip of a amphitheatre like quarry where we were shooting a complicated scene. Getting live / sync sound during these periods was no mean task by sound recordist Roland Heap. We disappointed our eager audience who waited in vain for Megnaa (Rani in the film) to break into a traditional Bollywood dance sequence.
Other mishaps included a heard of cows, panicked by our Swiss DP Markus Huersch with camera on a crane, head-butted each other almost taking with them our three actors who were crouched under a bush waiting for them to pass. The shot was framed so that we saw the actors from between the cow’s legs but the shy bovine refused to co-operate and our trying to time this sequence with ‘magic-hour’ (or the time when the sun is just about to set) was in vain. The only casualty in that mishap was one of Roland’s expensive microphones. On the final day, the wandering musicians (who feature in the film) almost did not make it to the set in time, being arrested in Jaipur due to a misunderstanding over their papers and line-producer Vans Pradeep had to pull strings to get them out.
A self-funding professional crew, a multi-dialect production team, the remote location, a very stretched budget, crew illness, burning tents, broken equipment and unwanted extras...just a few of the unusual and challenging elements to this production. But it also proved an unforgettable experience for all involved. In the end, it is testament to the crews’ dedication that the resulting film is such a success of emotive and visually-stunning storytelling.
