#actorsdiary

[prashantt-guptha]

God, Father and Son …

Something about this scene, everytime I watch this movie I wonder what was going on in the head of Al Pacino, taking over Marlon Brando’s ‘chair.’

[prashantt-guptha]

I don’t know if we’ll always have Paris. I don’t know if this or that is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. But i do know, I’ll always have CASABLANCA and this beautiful friendship will never end. Have you seen it? Please tell me you’ve seen it. And if you haven’t, please do and then tell me you’ve seen it. And that day, you’ll tell me like never before, ‘Prashantt, i think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.’ This movie is a timeless classic iv been watching almost annually for the last twenty years. I also own its Limited Edition LIFE magazine celebrating its 75 years. Oh, AS TIME GOES BY … of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine! ❤️❤️❤️

[prashantt-guptha]

BOOK RECOMMENDATION

Hope you’re having a safe n’ kind Sunday. Most of the people i know are in my age group or older. And so, the following message from the book above may bring a smile to your face or relief to heart. Though I highly recommend the book, this paragraph in itself must be read:

“My 20’s/30’s were contradictory decades, years when I eliminated conditions and truths that went against my grain. The value in this conservative era was that it safeguarded me from fatal character debits early in my life. It was a time when I was often more concerned with not running red lights than I was with investing in the greenlights. I did what I wanted, Iearned to live. I survived. My forties were a much more affirming decade, years when I started to play offense with truths I had learned and put them into action. An era where I doubled down on what fed me. The value of this liberal age was that it illuminated my most life-endorsing character assets. It was a time when I not only cruised through more greenlights because I had eliminated more red and yellow ones, but a time when I created more greenlights to travel through. A time when past reds and yellows turned green, as old hardships revealed themselves as good fortune, a time when the greenlights beamed brighter because I gave them more power to shine. I did what I needed, I lived to learn. I thrived.”

[prashantt-guptha]

This is FILM APPRECIATION

I took a FILM APPRECIATION class in College. It was one of the rare film/tv courses at my prestigious business school in Manhattan, Baruch College. One would find it odd that such a course could even exist, after all, how do you teach one to appreciate something, let alone FILM? Film history would have been a more apt name. But amongst the many things I learned in the course about Chaplin, Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, concepts like depth of field and mise-en-scene, and of course pioneers and the transition from silent to talkies, one very practical aspect was left out which one could only learn from being on a movie set. The LABOUR OF LOVE that goes into the final product that you comfortably see in theatres or the comforts of your home, now more so within 6 inches of your phone.

All the content you see is made on beautiful sets & locations, and these beautiful sets & locations are born out of rooms full of production equipment. What people see is a final product, normally clutter free and filtered with background sound and songs. But just once if the audience walked onto the set or location of their favorite film and saw/heard the commotion that normally takes place in getting the days work done, they’d be in for a rude awakening. An awakening of how un-glamorous the process is, how much labour, blood n’ sweat goes into making a film of any monetary budget, concept or canvass. Cinema. It’s hard work.

The picture you see is from the location of A NEW CHRISTMAS, an Airbnb house we had taken on rent to lodge and use as a location. And this is my little blog on Film Appreciation.

[prashantt-guptha]

*THIS HAPPENED IN NEW YORK*

This Sunday’s blog is about belief. But since the sign read BELIEVE, we’ll call it that. BELIEVE. Disclaimer: Im still learning to. Am no master at it. Remember, we’re all just walking each other home.

Whilst filming A NEW CHRISTMAS, I checked into the Hotel Pennsylvania at Penn Station, for three to four nights. The Manhattan scenes required I stay close by rather than come in from Long Island via the Long Island Rail Road. Time was money, and we had little of both. Upon entering my room through what looked like a historical passway, I opened the curtain. And what do I see? The sign above, flashing across one of the biggest buildings nearby. I could be wrong, but I think it was the MACY’s store. So many thoughts sprung up in my head as I settled myself to a chair and Chivas on a freezing mid-December night. ‘Believe’ what? Believe that Im gonna be a star, believe in God, or believe in the adventure of having turned Producer with this movie and for a good reason? Or, just believe in the spirit of Christmas, which is what the movie is about, only through the eyes of two vastly different immigrant ethnics. Hence, ‘A NEW’ CHRISTMAS. Well I suppose the sign was there for a reason. I would never have BELIEVED at the time, the the film would go onto 15 film festivals, sell in the US and international territories, have its world premiere at the prestigious HEARTLAND in Indiana and get onto platforms like Amazon and a few others, with great reviews and ratings. I shall continue to believe in the spirit of this movie, and it reaching India soon. Until then, if you’re in the US and say you’ve seen it, I’ll Believe you. If you haven’t, you should. Believe me.

By the way, not all signs will manifest into whatever it is you would like for it to suggest. But hey, it doesn’t hurt to BELIEVE so, right?

[prashantt-guptha]

Faith - Jai Neem Karoli Baba

True Story (of faith and miracles): One year prior to this picture was taken, I had read about a divine master, Neem Karoli Baba, in a book about Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs and later Mark Zuckerberg, were both devoted to him, though neither saw him in flesh. Only in spirit, at his Aashram. Upon reading about Baba, my curiousity kicked in, and immediately met my faith. I had read Baba was a devotee of, or perhaps, an incarnation of our beloved Lord Hanuman, personified in human form. But when I had started reading a lot about Baba’s miracles, one fine day I told him with closed eyes and a prayer, “please do call me to your Aashram.” Baba’s Aashram is in the city of Nainital (in the North of India) and I knew it wouldn’t figure into the places I would go to on a holiday.

And so it happened, Baba performed his miracle, he got me cast in a film that would shoot there. And it may perhaps prove to be one of the best films of my career, once released. The film was completed prior to Covid and throughout the pandemic, it went through a fine phase of post-production, now ready for release. And guess what, Iv sung a beautiful song in it too, my first movie playback. I pray now, ‘Dearly Baba, pls show the film to the world through a deserving release. If you can bring me to your Aashram, you can surely bring the movie to the World. Thank you.”

In the picture, I am at his Aashram on the very next day of being in Nainital, and I sat by where he slept, his blanket and chanted in the same cave many sages have. The place is called Kainchi Dham and it is the divine abode of Neem Karoli Baba. And this year, you will see the movie. I’m calling it. Can you call it too? A prayer for the movie, what say? 🙏🏻

[prashantt-guptha]

Al-righty THEN!

Ya’ll remember the episode in FRIENDS when Joey tried to get his headshot up on the wall of the drycleaners he’d visit? Along with all the other celeb patrons? Oh’ how i’ve tried the same at the local pizzeria in Manhasset, the area I live in New York. 🙈 This is Villa Milano, the best Pizza on Long Island. The Italian owner calls me, ‘ehhh Bollywood,’ because he knows Im an actor. And he’s always saying show me your movies. Next time, i’ll tell him to watch A NEW CHRISTMAS on Amazon now that it’s there for FREE, and hand him over a headshot! I wanna see myself right up there with Al Pacino. 😀

[prashantt-guptha]

A MUST READ book … !!!