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
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PRIYA RAMANI |