Iss post ko kya naam doon!

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Ok here goes. This is going to be slightly long winded, so please bear with me. First of all, if you are looking for a clarification on whether Barun is staying or leaving, you might as well stop reading now because you are not getting any – for the moment at least.

  1. We have weathered many storms if a particular show is shutting/particular actor is leaving or not in the past. Dev,Dadi, Maan, Geet, Anjali, Daljeet – the list is endless! We don’t comment on the same – ever… Unless told to do so, by the channel. End of story.
  2. The Facebook pages/Twitter accounts that we maintain take a lot of effort. We do this only to interact with the people who watch our shows. You have to understand this. No other production house does this. Why? It does not bring anything extra. Not revenue. Not ratings. Ask anyone. It is NOT a medium where we are obliged to give explanations and clarification. This might sound harsh, hurt you or offend you but it is the truth. You have to, have to understand this. Please.

Here is what happened:

  1. It was brought to our notice, someone was impersonating our Production house and pretending to be from our team. I did not check who the impostor/impersonator is and I posted on the site.  I worded it incorrectly. Big mistake and I truly apologise for it. Without cross-checking my facts with Gul, I posted we had not spoken to anybody.
  2. The person concerned messaged and said that people were calling her a liar. Gul called me up and I updated the post because we would not want to damage anybody’s online reputation especially if that person belonged to a online website. We did not want to damage anybody’s business. Big mistake again!
  3. The person messaged again and said that she was no longer in the employment of the online website - after the post had been updated.
  4. This is how it stands now.
  5. We have no idea what the concerned person posted and where all/ in which forum. Honest to God. Swear on my mother.

Moral of the story?

  1. We will not be talking to strangers anymore! Yeah, my parents warned me a long time ago about this one – but obviously, I do not listen!
  2. We are shutting down our account on all external websites. It is really not worth our time and effort. The Facebook pages will remain. If we feel the need to clarify anything, it will be on one of our sites.
  3. We will talk to the Channel and update this site next week, if needed. Yeah, they don’t work weekends.
So love us or hate us – this is how it is. I apologise once again for the confusion caused.
Yours sincerely,
Admin.

 

ENOUGH!

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This morning we woke up to find our Humse Hai Liife Facebook page missing. It was gone. Pulled off without any warning, rhyme or reason. The 40,000 odd members have no place to go and discuss their favourite show and we have no place to interact with them and share pictures and spoilers that we been doing regularly since we started Geet. The IPKKND page too was pulled down thrice when the show started but thankfully it is still there – but it causes a certain uneasiness and begs the question – till when? For those of you groping in the dark, Humse Hai Liife is a show we produce for Channel V and it recently completed 200 episodes. So we started thinking.

PROBLEM

  1. We have a website to manage – though it is still work in progress.
  2. We also have a Twitter account for our company.
  3. We have a Facebook page and Twitter account to manage for each one of our shows.
  4. Our Creatives and us don’t like to visit too many sites to gather feedback about the shows – especially to sites which give out false news and spread rumours to create controversy in order to generate page views.
  5. Most important – we are not sure when our favourite neighbourhood hangout place (Facebook page) will vanish in thin air for any particular show.
  6. We want to have one place where we can all hang out – make conversation, have fights and brawls, share stories, photos and music and have free coffee (just kidding!!!) – all this without the fear of it all just vanishing in thin air someday.

SOLUTION

  1. We are kind of thinking of starting a forum of sorts for our own shows.
  2. One place where we can share our common love for Geet, IPKKND, Humse Hai Liife, Suvreen Guggal, Arjun and Qubool Hai – and maybe, if you promise not to tell anyone – share some secrets that nobody is supposed to know.

So? What say? What do you guys think of the idea? Please leave your comments. And one more thing, we will be need some great independent moderators to mange the forums if we decide to go ahead with this.

 

TEAM ARJUN: JOB OFFER

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Looking for people to fill up two positions at 4 Lions Films on the show ARJUN:

  1. Assistant Director (TA 1)

  2. Assistant Creative (TA 2)

TEAM ARJUN

TEAM ARJUN

REQUIREMENTS

For the Assistant Director (TA 1) position, candidates should:

  1. Have good command over Hindi and English. Some people speak French on the set but we tend to ignore them and not give them food.
  2. Be be able to work long hours and all night as well because sometimes we shoot night shifts – followed by the day shift and followed by the night shift again!
  3. Have a basic understanding of the shoot process. True. We have our share of freshers. Trust us – they are not a happy bunch!
  4. Have 6 months to 1 year of work experience in the same or related field OR some kind of educational background in the related field. Or something that tells us that you are not joining our company to hang out with the actors.
  5. Have a willingness to work in the field. We shoot in jungles, in woods, in dark abandoned warehouses, in lakes. In rain, in sunshine, in hail. You get the picture don’t you?
  6. Be of sound physical health.This is serious –  Apart from a lot of running around, there is a lot of dust, explosions, smoke and gunfire on our set, so people with asthma, arthritis and other chronic illnesses have an extremely bad time.
  7. Be of sound mental health. The position of the Chief Nut Job is already taken. You will meet him in person if you are selected.
  8. Be a resident of Mumbai. It’s quite a waste of time coming to the shoot, all the way from Delhi.
  9. Bring their own mosquito repellant.

For the Assistant Creative (TA 2) position, candidates should:

  1. Have a good grasp over the concepts of photography. Having skills shooting with the iPhone and 1000+ plus followers on Instagram does count a little too.
  2. Ideally posses a DSLR with at least the kit lens and a tripod. We hate shaky pictures.
  3. Have basic Photoshop skills like colour correction, resizing, adding text layers etc. If you know something more, you will be the most popular person on the set – we guarantee!
  4. Have basic data and colour management skills in the photography digital workflow – which essentially means that ensuring the pictures come out the way they are supposed to. Our actors are touchy about magenta halos around their heads.
  5. Be willing to travel long distances to photograph strange things and strange people in strange costumes. Please don’t tell us later that you weren’t warned.
  6. Posses a laptop of their own. There is an acute shortage of laptops on our show. They got shot at or were exploded in the action sequences.
  7. Have the ability to see in the dark without night vision glasses.

Please email us at hr(at)4lionsfilms(dot)com:

  1. Stating the position and code (TA 1 OR TA 2) that you are applying for in the subject line.
  2. No attachments please - List your address, contact numbers, age, sex, qualification in the body of the mail.
We look forward to you becoming a part of the madness that is TEAM ARJUN.

 

 

How to apply for an acting job…

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Perfect example of what NOT to do.

Ever since we made the email id for casting, public, we have been flooded with emails and pictures. For the record, it is casting@4lionsfilms.com. The absolutely crazy number emails have left us in a tizzy making us wonder whether it was a lapse in creating and giving out the email id? Who does that? Anyway, without getting into the details about the kind of mails that we have been getting, we would like to bring some order to the chaos. We understand that all those who want to act do not have pictures clicked by professionals, but still if we follow the simple guidelines posted below, it will help us deal with your mails better and your chances of getting rejected will be lesser.

GUIDELINES:

  • The pictures should be between 800 and 1200 pixels wide.
  • The accompanying mail should have between three and seven pictures, though you may send as many as ten, if that pleases you!
  • The total size of all the attachments should not be more than 10MB.
  • The subject line of the mail should ideally state your sex and age. For example: “Male, 32 years, seeking character role.”  ”Please sir give me just one chance” is not the ideal subject line for this kind of mail.
  • You should be alone in the picture. All by yourself! While we love dogs, babies and in rare cases, stuffed toys… For this particular picture(s), please leave them out! While we understand that you looked smashing at this cousin’s wedding and you think this is your “bestest” picture – the same applies to your cousin as well.
  • You facing forwards, looking straight towards the camera. Your friends might have told you that you resemble Shahrukh Khan or Katrina Kaif when viewed from the side or a certain angle – but we need to see how you look straight on! No really, no kidding… We really do!
  • Your eyes open and clearly visible with no sunglasses or heavily tinted glasses, and no hair across your eyes. Stylish as it might look we do want to see what those eyes look like and what beautiful colour they are!
  • If you prefer or wear glasses, please make sure there is no reflection or glare on your glasses, and the frames should not cover your eyes. Although, honestly speaking, you may find it easier to just  remove your glasses!
  • We should see your full head, without any head covering, unless it is worn for religious beliefs or medical reasons. The right to make you look ridiculous rests completely with us. So please throw away that “FRIENDS” cap that you have saved from 1989. It does not make you look like Salman Khan. The same applies to all cowboy hats, baseball caps and that wonderful straw hat from that wonderful vacation.
  • Nothing should be covering your face. Please make sure nothing covers the outline of your eyes, nose or mouth. While we do plan to make some shows based on dacoits, bandits and the likes sometime in the future – please let us decide how to cover your face and when.

The body of the mail should have the following:

  • Your name – rockstar89 doesn’t tell us your real name.
  • Your address – geographical location is very important. We want to know whether you can come for an audition tomorrow or next month, after getting a visa.
  • Your phone number – please don’t make us send you another email asking you for a number.
  • Acting course undertaken, if any.
  • Previous work experience, if any. If not, please state that you are a newcomer.
  • Video links, if any
  • Website, if any.
Let’s see how well this goes.

Production Diary: Humse Hai Liife – Raaghav audition

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The shooting date was drawing near and we had still not found “Raaghav” for our show Humse Hai Liife on Channle V. Himansh was flying down from Delhi as we had called him to audition after looking at his pictures. His flight was delayed and after a really long wait, Himansh walked into our office – looking extremely tired. We had already finalised “Arjun” and asked him to be in office to audition with Himansh – to see how they looked together. Himansh was hastily put in front of the camera and here is what happened…

Production Diary: Look test

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Even after, actors are finalised they undergo tonnes of what we call-look tests. This is to ensure that they look nice on camera and they are made to try different clothes and hair styles. Since the Star Network has just gone high definition, we also took this opportunity to try out different cameras to try and figure out what would be the best camera suited for our production.

This is one of the look tests that Barun took. Needless to say, this look was not finalised. We think, he looks really nice with long hair. What do you think? Do you prefer him with the short hair that he is sporting now in the serial Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon or with the long hair that he used to have?