There was no kiss for a royal cheek at this film shoot. But the great great grandson of the Empire turned clapper boy for a symbolic gesture of the Crown’s reconciliation with history. Prince Charles sounded the mahurat clap of The Rising — a period film on the 1857 uprising against the British Raj. ‘‘The Rising, mahurut shot, take one,’’ said Charles, to the whirring camera, after listening to director Ketan Mehta’s instructions. In a dove grey suit with a red poppy tucked in his buttonhole, Charles chatted with producer Bobby Bedi about the cartridges laced with animal fat that had triggered the uprising, the focus of The Rising. ‘‘Getting Prince Charles for the mahurat shot was a logistics nightmare,’’ said Bedi. After a scene at the sets of a fort between Mangal Pandey (Aamir Khan) and William Gordon (Toby Stephens), Charles applauded, jumped on to the stage and complimented the actors. ‘‘It’s a great gesture though the rebellion was against the East India Company and the Crown took over only after the event,’’ said Mehta. Leading lady Aishwarya Rai was held up in Khandala wrapping up Khakee, and Rani Mukherjee scurried in after Charles made a quick, quiet exit. But actors Aamir Khan and Toby Stephens — nervously gulping chilled water backstage — director Ketan Mehta and producer Bedi glowed in the attention the Prince gave them in the half-hour he was at the hotel room. ‘‘I’ve been organising this with the British High Commission for three months,’’ said Bedi, as Charles chatted with Yash Chopra, Subhash Ghai and Javed Akhtar. But even the Prince of Wales couldn’t delay Mumbai’s lunch. After a ceremonial rendezvous, some 70 dabbawalas selected to meet Prince Charles fled — as soon as the niceties of royal greetings were completed. Shouting ‘‘sade bara, sade bara,’’ pointing to tiffins that simply had to be delivered by 12.30 pm, they grabbed their racks and scampered to duty with 1.75 lakh hungry clients waiting. ‘‘We are late by 15 minutes. But we will make it up by running,’’ said 20-year-old Anil. Dressed in white, members of the dabbawala union presented Charles with a memento, a shawl and a Gandhi cap. But the Prince refused to wear the cap. ‘‘He asked us where we live and how we manage to deliver tiffins,’’said Dhondiba Kondiba Choudhary. Later, Charles expressed awe at the dabbawala tradition. ‘‘How do they manage to work this way without using any modern technology?’’ At a NASSCOM event, Charles stumped a techie or two with royal repartees, and expressed surprise that villages in Rajasthan had solar-powered PCs. After Ashank Desai of Mastek gave a presentation on IT solutions to ease London traffic, Charles whispered: ‘‘Desai, why don’t you do the same for Mumbai?’’ Broccoli pakoras, KS and the Prince PRIYA RAMANI MUMBAI, NOVEMBER 4: Seven sharp, the invite said, and they were all there. ‘‘Back, please’’, barked a so-propah royal protection service officer as Mumbai’s social set swallowed their pride (and broccoli pakoras) and positioned themselves strategically to greet the royal visitor at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, which has played host to global hoi polloi since Prince Charles’ great grandmother’s time. It was not so easy to get past security, easily identified by regulation blonde close-cropped haircuts and the faux red poppies on their lapels, in remembrance of WW II martyrs. But if you did, you encountered the Prince himself, a friendly and affable person, a master of working the room, a man who had a kind word, a smile or a handshake for everyone—from social workers at Dharavi to Mumbai’s top CEOs and socialites. For many though, the real star of the evening was the Princess Diana look-alike who stood a head over most at six feet plus. Dressed in an off-white linen suit with a strand of pearls, Tina New confessed embarressedly that the British press too said she looked like the deceased princess. ‘‘So what did Charles tell you,’’ she was asked more than once. ‘‘I’d like to know too,’’ said husband Mitya, general manager at Reuters India. But she wasn’t telling. Columnist Shobhaa De got her turn too. ‘‘Paul Smith is sexy,’’ she whispered to the Prince of Wales, of the British Council’s director (West Asia). Last year, De met Camilla Parker Bowles at a fundraiser to commemorate Indian WW II heroes. ‘‘We discussed the Kama Sutra and laughed a lot,’’ she said. ‘‘Oh he asked about the family,’’ said industrialist Adi Godrej. His uncle and the Prince worked together for the World Wide Fund for Nature. Joelle Firstbrook was one of the first to glide past security in her strappy blouse and sari. Her husband Steve, who runs Invest UK, was leading the Prince through the room. ‘‘He asked me where I was from, I told him Mauritius,’’ said Joelle. ‘‘He said he’s never been, I told him he must visit.’’ Others like Magsaysay winner and social activist Joaquim Arumutham of Spaarc said they were in no hurry to say hi. ‘‘He’s spending an hour and 10 minutes with us on Wednesday,’’ he said. ‘‘And yes, I did shake his hand.’’
