It is impossible to predict where filmmaker Homi Adajania‘s stories will lead. Sample this: A fake fakir, a campaign in Venice, a rugby match in Pakistan, and a film starring Farhan Akhtar — all a part of the same story that happened years ago, which the filmmaker happily recalled in an interview. Appearing on Cyrus Broacha’s podcast Cyrus Says, Homi opened up about the time he started ‘freelancing’ on projects and became a ‘hustler’ of sorts before entering the world of films. He would be called in for ‘specific things’, which included bizarre campaigns.
“There was a creative head of Benetton, who got fired because he put people who are on death row on billboards. This was years ago, and he was a maverick. He wanted to shoot with people with no limbs found on the roads of Mumbai as a campaign. It never happened; it was too out there. So stuff like that, like I took a fake fakir to Venice for a campaign… ” he said.
Cyrus Broacha then asked him to elaborate the story of the “fake fakir”, who Homi Adajania said was an unemployed painter from Jogeshwari, Mumbai. “So this was in 1998-99, when an art gallery got a fax of a guy upside down, with his head in the ground. The fax said, ‘Please find above exactly what we want.’ This was sent to the film company I used to work with. Then I had to look for a person, who could shove their head underground with their body sticking out for hours. I assumed it would all be at Kumbh Mela or Allahabad and such places. I deployed two people who would provide us with junior artistes from Allahabad, Rishikesh, and other places. By that time, the company had paid me. I paid a small percentage of that money to these people and I took the rest of the money and I went to Pakistan to play a rugby tournament. By the time I came back, I thought there would be a long list, but these guys said a guy like that was impossible to find!”
The filmmaker said the people who could actually pull off stunts like that were operating on a “different realm”, and they were probably living somewhere in the mountains. “I said, why don’t you tell these guys that they would be able to go to Venice. They said, ‘We have tried that, but these guys are saying we can go to Venice while sitting here!'”
Homi recalled how one day, he got a call from a junior artiste called Pappu Lekhraj, who said, “Sir Le Fakir-O mil gaya!” with an Italian twist. The filmmaker met the man, hoping he would have dreadlocks, but was shocked to find an unassuming-looking fellow with a jhola, two kids and sister standing in front of him. “He was Abdul Sattar Sheikh. He used to be a busker at Juhu beach, who would bury himself underground, with just his hand sticking out, like a samadhi. He would be in the sand like that for two-three hours, and people would give him money. His job was painting buildings, but on Sundays he would do this.”
Homi continued, “In fact, this became a movie (The Fakir of Venice), where Fahan Akhtar played me. They had heard the story and wanted its rights. I don’t know what happened to the fate of the film, but I asked them for a nominal fee and went to South America. I quoted them the exact amount that was required for my trip to Machu Picchu and come back!”
On the work front, Homi’s mystery comedy film, Murder Mubarak, starring Sara Ali Khan, recently released on Netflix.
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