Chapter 348 Harem Master
Ron took Urmila to visit Chopra's villa in Bandra's Little Portugal area, a gathering place for Catholics.
Urmila liked the free and easy atmosphere. Before she entered the entertainment industry, the only Catholic she knew was her teacher at school.
All she knew about Catholicism at the time came from Indian movies: religious women wearing short skirts and religious men drinking heavily.
She therefore liked them particularly well, and as she grew up and entered Bollywood, she found herself more comfortable with Catholics.
Unlike the restraint I felt when I was with my Gujarati friends, and unlike the Catholic hospitality, when I went to a Gujarati home for dinner, I was served carefully prepared vegetarian food but no appetizers or drinks.
They are all staunch Hindus, ascetics, vegetarians and abstain from alcohol.
Urmila used to live in South Mumbai and has now moved to Bandra as well.
A few years ago this was a suburb, but now it has become the entertainment center of Mumbai.
Her new apartment in Bandra, which she will call "home", is the former residence of a famous movie star.
The other party had several representative works during the parallel film movement in the 1980s, but unfortunately, she is no longer beautiful.
Her sister agreed to rent the house to Urmila, and the entire negotiation process was as long as the Indian independence movement.
Urmila had seen her father and the jeweler shake hands and sign a contract for an apartment, and the contract for the Bandra apartment was the most lengthy and detailed she had ever seen.
With the instigation of the intermediary, both parties were wary of and suspicious of each other from the very beginning.
The landlord had laid out every clause, fearing she might take away the curtain rods, light fixtures, and even the toilet paper holder when the lease expired. They pored over every word and sentence of the contract like military experts preparing to sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
Even after the contract was signed, the stern-faced landlord did not shake her hand, nor did he wish her a happy life in her new home.
The Tenancy Act has made Mumbai a city without trust. Even for a three-story walk-up apartment ten minutes' drive from the heart of Bollywood, she has to endure the landlord's constant harassment and coldness.
When Ron found out, he laughed at her and called her a fool. A Bollywood actress still had to look up to others?
The next day, the film star's sister took the property title deed and other documents and handed them to Urmila with both hands.
What rental terms? The whole building is hers now.
Not only that, the best interior design team in Mumbai also visited the apartment.
Then three decoration plans with different styles were placed in front of Urmila for her to choose from.
In Mumbai, the city of money, wealth allows you to do whatever you want.
It was, after all, a much nicer house, and Urmila liked it very much.
The entire floor-to-ceiling window in the room overlooks the pleasant palm trees, beach and sea, and the light is pleasant no matter how it changes.
After the renovation was completed and the elevator was installed, Ron came here to stay for a few days.
Urmila let him do whatever he wanted, and they posed in dozens of ways, from the sofa in the living room to the kitchen and then to the balcony.
Ron likes the balcony the most. When the sun is not too hot in the morning, he can enjoy the beautiful sea view while feeling the sea breeze.
It was a comfort that came from the inside out and from top to bottom, and it was so refreshing.
Ron liked to bully Urmila occasionally, and the weak girl would sometimes even cry.
Just like on the stage of the talent show, she didn't dare to watch the overly intense performances at all. She was so timid.
But Ron loved her after all. She had no shortage of Bollywood resources and could choose any program from Sun TV.
The traffic brought by the talent show has firmly established her as a top actress in Bollywood.
Her income was not low, and her family was well off. She just wanted to live in Bandra, away from her parents.
She has a weak temper and has always lived with her parents. Except when she is filming outside, she always comes home no matter how late it is and never spends the night outside.
But Ron has been obsessed with the fair and tender girl recently, so Urmila has no choice but to find an excuse and secretly move to Bandra.
"Ron, what scene is Director Chopra going to shoot that requires your help?" She snuggled up to him.
"It's probably some sensitive topic. We'll know if we go in and ask."
Ron took her into Chopra's villa, and the servants were waiting at the door early.
Chopra looked the same, with thinning hair, and he didn't wear his signature baseball cap at home.
When Ron entered, the director was lying on the floor groaning, with three ladies squatting there massaging different parts of his body.
Among them is his wife, Ron's old friend Anu, who is the chief reporter of India Today.
Ron was stunned by this scene. The other two ladies didn't look like servants.
"I've had back pain lately." Chopra stood up with difficulty.
"You need to rest." Ron guessed it might be a lumbar disc problem or something.
The three ladies chattered as they walked into the kitchen, but after working for a long time, they didn't even serve a decent dessert.
"The chef has taken a day off today." Anu explained embarrassedly.
"None of you are good Indian women. None of you know how to make an omelet," Chopra complained.
"You chose all these concubines yourself." Anu poked him.
The other two ladies also started to criticize Chopra, revealing all his faults and scandals.
"Okay, okay, it's my fault," Chopra begged.
It was only then that Ron realized that the three ladies in the room were Chopra's wives.
But don't get me wrong, the other two are his exes and Anu is his current wife.
Ron was so surprised that if the timing wasn't wrong, he would have wanted to ask Chopra how she did it.
Two ex-boyfriends and the current one, these three women can not only get along harmoniously, but also give him massages?
Slide away, Ron doesn’t have that ability now.
According to Chopra's explanation, both of his ex-wives often visited his residence and they did not lose contact.
When he married Anu, he took her to the home of his first mother-in-law. The old lady put tilak on Anu's forehead and blessed her, saying, "From now on, you are our daughter."
Chopra doesn't think he should stop loving his ex-wife after the divorce, and more importantly, he doesn't think his ex-wife should stop loving him after the divorce.
No way, Ron decided to seek advice from him privately.
This guy is a master. Ron urgently needs to solve this problem.
Well, he also wanted to lie on the ground and have eight different women massaging different parts of his body.
After chatting for a while, the two got to the main topic of the day.
“Take a look at this,” Chopra said, handing over a script.
"A war drama?" Luo En asked curiously. This subject matter is very rare.
“It’s not the war that’s important, it’s where the war is taking place.”
"Oh," Ron glanced again, "Ksenmier?"
"Yes, the background is the conflict in Kashmir."
"This topic is quite sensitive." Ron probably understood what he meant.
"You know, Ron. I grew up in Punjab, and even my old house was burned down by militants."
Chopra is obsessed with that place, and he is eager to try out subjects that others dare not shoot.
The film begins with an army officer named Khan, whose son is seriously injured but no doctor dares to treat him.
Because the militants said that if anyone dared to treat the family of a soldier, the doctor's entire family would be killed.
Khan could only watch his son die. He was heartbroken and felt that his son's death was caused by the terrorist. He vowed to take revenge.
Because the story takes place in the Kashmir region, the background is very complicated and involves various human considerations.
Perhaps the militants also have their own hidden secrets, and they are also helpless in various ways, and can only go with the flow under the coercion of fate.
Tsk, this is outrageous. The Indian military definitely doesn't want to see this kind of movie.
"Has the script been finalized?" he asked.
"No, not yet. I'm very hesitant." At this point, Chopra simply picked up the phone and called the screenwriter.
Soon a young screenwriter from Gujarat, and Ron's acquaintance, writer Vikram, rushed to Chopra's house.
They discussed the direction of the plot on the spot and tried their best to tell Ron the complete structure of the story.
The scripts of Indian films are more spoken than written.
The director had to express his ideas with unparalleled passion, and although Chopra spoke Punjabi with great gusto, their conversations about the script and the lines were all in English.
India's film industry is dominated by the middle class. Newcomers who are not fluent in English are at a great disadvantage and must catch up as soon as possible.
Ron has participated in the filming of an Indian movie. The director's instructions, whether it was an explanation of the plot, guidance to the actors or instructions to the crew, were all given in English.
Recently, he invited Shah Rukh Khan and Amit Bachchan to lunch for the show "Got Talent" and listened to them talk about their favorite American movies and TV series.
I also heard them complain that All India Television forced them to speak Hindi in talk shows, when they didn't even know the Hindi equivalents of certain English words.
Vinod, whose study is filled with English scripts from foreign directors, says Mission Kashmir is his last Indian film.
If it performs well at the box office, he wants to use the proceeds to make a Hollywood film.
He was gambling his career, and except for "Love in the Clouds", the next few movies he made were flops.
Chopra's film company has already suffered a loss of Rs 10 crore and if Mission Kashmir also fails miserably, he will not be able to survive in the film industry.
"If the movie doesn't sell, I'll have to mortgage my house." He spread his hands helplessly.
"Why do you have to make a movie about this kind of subject?" Ron thought he was just bored.
As for the talk of bankruptcy, that was just for show. One of his wife Anu's brothers was a major shareholder in the Maldives Resort and had no shortage of money.
For famous directors like Chopra, the audience already has a general understanding of the story of their films before entering the theater.
For such controversial movies, the media will continue to follow up and report on them, which can easily touch sensitive lines.
"I think this is a good story that has both depth and commercial value."
What's more, since it concerns his hometown, Chopra can hardly bear it.
(End of this chapter)
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