"We went that extra mile to make sure audiences could watch a natak on Parsi New Year day at their homes,” stated stage director and writer Meherzad Patel. He was responding to Parsiana’s questions about his Silly Point Productions’ first screening of a play online. Pretty Boman was shot in actors’ homes and broadcast on YouTube to a ticketed audience of approximately 700 on August 16, 2020. It remained available to ticket holders for a month thereafter. Audiences could stream the show to their televisions. "That’s an achievement given that Netflix and Amazon and Disney are not waiting for us with open arms.” As stated actor Danesh Irani, "In my opinion, this was a great way for us to enter the market (of online shows)... We are late on the scene, but better late than never.”
"Of course there are mistakes in the film...there are limitations... but 96% of our audience loved it... They texted us their good wishes... If you watch it with the intention of finding fault, then you can find fault even in a 100 crore rupee film... If people expect (to go on) a trip to the moon on a cycle, then they’d just end up disappointed pedalers,” Patel quipped.
Pretty Boman starred film veteran Boman Irani in the title role, along with Danesh, Darius Shroff, Danesh Khambata, Sajeel Parakh and Dilnaz Irani. Boman essays his real life role as an actor. He becomes an unwitting pawn in the schemes of failed theater director Cavas Contractor (Danesh Irani) and his friends who plot to cast him (in Contractor’s film).
Patel believes that moving his production online is not "as much a trend as it is a necessity... Five years back we met at my house for a similar interview (see "Some serious silliness,” Parsiana, August 7, 2015)... enjoyed a cup of tea...watched the cricket match... Laughed... Today it is an online email interview because social distancing is the new normal,” he wrote.
"What audiences would not realize is that everyone (of the cast and crew) risked illness to make sure that (the) community could enjoy a certain day sitting at home,” stated the director. Only two days were allotted for the actual shoot at the home of one of the actors. "We couldn’t risk it going on longer… We prepared for it like we would prepare for a play. We all learnt our lines, and rehearsed on Zoom. We met a day before the show, Meherzad directed our movements and, to our surprise, we finished the entire shoot in a day and a half!” exulted Danesh Irani.
Above clockwise from top left: Darius Shroff, Sajeel Parakh, Danesh Irani,
Danesh Khambata, Dilnaz Irani; inset Meherzad Patel; above right: Boman Irani
"I really think we did a good job, considering all the restrictions and the lack of cinematic experience. I was most surprised when my mother said she liked it. She rarely likes any of my work. I think the wine helped!” quipped the actor, known for his one-liners. How different was it for him to act in front of a camera rather than on stage? "It isn’t completely alien to me. But filming an entire show was a whole different experience. We performed it like we would perform a play, and the skeletal technical team caught the moments they wanted. So, in reality, they are the ones who deserve the credit.”
What were some of the amusing incidents during the filming? "We tried to incorporate as much honesty in the shoot as possible...When you do a live play, if an actor makes a mistake on stage or something doesn’t go as planned, the audience gets to see it. So we tried our level best to leave (in) certain bloopers as a part of the production,” said Patel. For example, an inadvertent opening of a door by a neighbor during shooting of a scene featuring Boman was left in the footage "because it is just so amusing and it fit in perfectly.”
Ticketed performances "have a responsibility to the audience... And that responsibility is something we took seriously,” narrated Patel. "Everything you see on YouTube and Instagram and Facebook is non-ticketed. When somebody is watching a free video they can switch it off in two minutes... it will not matter.”
Cyrus Pooniwala’s (since deceased) "Visionaire Productions was the only one who screened one of their earlier plays [Bawaji ka time aayega (Bawaji’s time will come)] free of cost on YouTube. But I don’t think anyone else did anything,” said Danesh Irani, adding the he "won’t be surprised to see a long list of Parsi movies in March” (next year). "This is something we’ve seen in the past as well. For years there were no performances on Jamshedi Navroz, then one year we performed and the next year on, there were eight others! I look forward to seeing more productions in March!”