Rain, ruin and resurrection

It is the home of our favourite stars. It is home to Parvati, Kesar, Kusum, Saroj and Kashish, and like our own, their houses too were in ruins a few days back. Sankraman studio in Goregaon East in suburban Mumbai that houses Balaji telefilms' major dailies was a dilapidated structure, as the torrential rains laid bare the place that keeps the country entertained night after night! But, as we move into the studio and oversee the damage, we realise the amount of effort that will go into bringing some semblance of order in the chaos that was brought in by the rain gods. As we step into Sankaraman, the first thing we see is huge rolls of wet clothing in different colours lying in the mud. These are the curtains and sheets that are required to do up the interiors of the sets. "Sab kuch kharab ho gaya hai. Humne bahut koshish ki, par pani itni jaldi aaya, ki sab bah gaya," rues a crew (Everything is ruined. We tried a lot to save whatever we could, but the rains were torrential and it took everything away). The worst hit is the costumes of the actors which are stored in large trunks. These trunks got carried away by the rains and since most of them were open, all the clothes could be seen floating in gutter water. As much as three truckloads of clothes were sent to the laundry, by the time the rains relented. We see hundreds of empty trunks lying bare, with names of the various characters written on them. Kkusum's household seemed to be the worst hit. Studio number six, that houses Angad of Kaisa Yeh Pyar Hai , has carpets that look still damp and the woodwork on the ground has bloated, so shooting seems a distant dream there. Studio number two seems to have survived nature's fury -- Kashish's good deeds must have reaped rich dividends for them. The one thing that strike us is that all around us there is so much muck, even after six days, that it seemed an herculean task even to think of the amount of mud there was on the day that the deluge happened. 50 people were employed everyday to clear away the mud and the dirty water that had settled on the sets. The set of Kkusum was affected to such an extent that shooting resumed just on Tuesday. Even the lights that are so essential for shooting are in need of repairs. Fear of short circuit had made the management decide to switch off electricity and this made work more difficult for people who were trying to salvage property. Perhaps it is better to let the photographs speak for themselves. As they say, a picture sometimes says a thousand words…but in all, the picture of Sankraman in front of our eyes, as it stood amidst its own ruins, stood up for the spirit of all mankind, that never says die!