My first recording experience

July 22, 2008, 10.30 AM, Doordarshan Kendra……….was the time and place I had to be at for my first ever recording session! One of my colleagues had a supposed fall and virtual tooth break and hence, I had to substitute her. My debates, elocutions, speeches and public announcements done time and again made me believe that speaking is no problem for me! I had this script that I managed to get just a day before and had to learn it by rote!

Got up at 6:00 AM in the morning, got dressed in a Saree with a hundred pins put on, did slight make-up and moved on in a rickshaw. I was dropped at the main office by a colleague and let us leave the story of being a pillion with both legs on one side and the bike sans saree guard! Giggles……..I reached at 10.25 AM sharp and the complete place was empty with just the two of us hanging around. Then came a group of musicians and the singer whom I was supposed to introduce on national TV. They were established and undisputedly looked confident! Just as they listened to me once, they had a list of changes and I had to make my speech much more boastful than it already was! I had to include weird names which apparently till the end I couldn’t memorize.

The wait was never ending…..

The friend who’d dropped me had to leave for an exam in his college and I frivolously started calling the rest if they could just come and accompany me. A dear friend was kind enough to agree and reached the place at 1:00 PM. There was no sign of us changing the drape or going inside the studio. Then I met this sweet lady who was going to give the singer’s introduction in Hindi. She was quite encouraging and affirmed the same old sentence – “there’s always a first time” (BULLSHIT)! It was around 1.30 PM that the tension really started gripping and just because I wasn’t too well-prepared, I had these jitters from within almost after my 10 boards. Since then, had forgotten what tension actually meant!

Anyway, I was called in the editing room to see how the shooting takes place! Oh man….They had these 20 televisions flashing the darn same thing and I started going crazy in my tummy. All people were old, drowsy, experienced and I seemed to be the only fool who was struggling in a saree. The two sessions of the singer’s performance got over and then was the lunch break. I had no nerve to gulp down a single morsel, still asked my friend to get a pack of Lays and he was just so nice to be there all the while! I went in for make-up and was asked to wear on my change.

Make up Messy!

The make-up – O H M Y G O D!

She’d turned me into something that I had never seen myself as!….She must’ve put on I think around hundred coats of foundation and after the base, she supposedly made my face look thinner by painting it from here and there in the right proportions. Oh god! I was too young to open my mouth and just kept shut and got it all done! It was after three lipsticks changed that I was let out of the room. Finally I did….my skin choked with make-up!

Practice & Finale!

I had to practice and the people there asked me to directly enter the recording hall and practice. Some dirty artificial flowers were kept to my side and I started….NAMASKAR….

Radhika was able to manage everything else but the names. I fumbled so many times during practice, but man the morons were way too supportive and encouraging! They told me that I am really doing well for the first time. Finally, they flashed the lights and after that entire ‘camera rolling’, ‘action’ comments etc., it STARTED!

Oh god! I was supposed to maintain this smile on my face for the first time in my life which I think was forced. With such huge machines in front of me, I had really lost track of what was happening. What I was saying wasn’t even falling on my ears! Those lights, huge cameras and a TV in front of me where I could see myself and a few people were all that I could see. I spoke and made a mistake! Never mind they said and I again started! Again I made a mistake with some of the names and went on. I was tensed for what reason I don’t know, but I was! Maybe I couldn’t manage the complete speech in one go, but the people were co-operative enough to give me the freedom to record in two takes broken in between!

I managed to complete it and felt like this big star who had achieved something out of this world! After coming back to office, people were excited to see me in a saree and the day ended on an okay and tired note! That was me and my first recording experience at Doordarshan…

Catch me on National TV (DD1) on August 16, 2008, 8:30 AM onwards!

P.S.: Special thanks to Manalee Danait (the tooth broken female), Himanshu (the guy without the saree guard on his bike), Ashish (the person who stayed on with me at that ultra-boring place till 6:00 PM and was the ultimate support), team at Doordarshan, My parents who made me feel like a princess, my relatives who boosted my confidence the night before and most of all GOD (for being the luck with me)!