Lights, camera, ..........action?

SO we were just walking down the street minding our own business when this French woman named Helene asked us to be in a film. OK! sure, why not be an extra for a day or two in a luxury resort near Auroville, and get paid 2,000 Rupees for it, sounds like an experience!

Well..... Yes, an experience it was, but not much acting at all! Me and Jo got to walk down the steps of a hotel lobby discussing something enthusiastically ("with laughing and hand gestures", we were instructed) for 2 minutes, and that was it for the day. The other 12 hours we spent: playing cards, reading, sleeping, playing more cards, eating lunch, drinking chai, sleeping, talking, playing more cards, drinking more chai, listening to other people's stories, playing more cards!

The whole thing was kind of a joke. None of the extras had been given the same information. There were about 18 of us from France, Germany, Canada, the US, Spain, and New Zealand, of course. The only criteria was that we needed to have "white skin", as Helene stated. SOme of the women did "bikini scene" by the pool, and some fed "wine" to the star, who was this smart-looking Indian guy who needed to fix his inch-long hair every two minutes in the mirror (pretty funny to watch!). The movie was going to be a Tamil film, set in Dubai. The resort was definitely luxury enough, but I'm not quite sure how we fit into it all. Maybe we are supposed to be travellers visiting this resort? Most of the time we just did nothing, but we were reasonably happy because there were lots of interesting people to talk to, chai to drink, and cards to play (although after the 8th game of Donkey it does become a little tiring).

Friends made and experiences told; after waiting over an hour after the film crew and everyone had left for the bus driver to come back with our bus, we were driven home in the dark along those busy honking main roads (although thankfully we had aircon) back to Pondicherry where we grabbed some much-needed dinner and a beer.

Today: sunburnt and tired but happy.