Saif Ali Khan: Paid holiday for hawkers

Puja bonus has come a month early to a south Calcutta pocket — thanks to Chhote Nawab.

Saif Ali Khan is in town to shoot again (after Parineeta) and some hawkers in Lake Market are cheering the loudest. Not because they hope to catch a glimpse of Kareena Kapoor, but because they have been paid to clear the path for the shoot.

Sardar Shankar Road — a lane off Lake Market — is the chosen site for “a small schedule” in Imtiaz Jab We Met Ali’s next directorial venture, starring Saif and Deepika Padukone.

For four days, the hawkers selling vegetables, fruits and fish on this stretch will be on a paid holiday after pocketing Rs 2,000 from Illuminati Films, Saif's production company debuting with the Imtiaz film.

“We struggle to make Rs 300 on any given day and to get Rs 2,000 for four days without having to sell anything is like winning a pre-Puja jackpot,” smiled one of the hawkers.

The festive offer was lapped up by not just the 100-odd hawkers who dot Sardar Shankar Road, but at least 300 hawkers from the Lake Market area who cashed in on the Bollywood booty, said a shopowner.

Also benefiting from the tinsel touch of Tiger Pataudi and Sharmila Tagore’s son are the houses in the lane, some of which are being re-painted to give them a period look.

“The painting work has been on for the past week or so,” said Pranabesh Ghosh, whose house will be the epicentre of the action where Saif comes looking for his love — sadly, he is not meant to find either Deepika or Bebo during the Calcutta schedule.

“The production team, led by Imtiaz, has been very cordial and there is a lot of excitement in the house about Saif coming to shoot here,” said Ghosh.

Art director Teddy Maurya’s team has also added a shed full of unfinished idols of goddesses, a makeshift tea stall and ornamental road signs reminiscent of a north Calcutta para in the 1960s.

“It was difficult to find a broad road in north Calcutta, so we opted for this Lake Market lane,” Imtiaz told Metro. The man from Jamshedpur has chosen Calcutta for “its old-world charm”.

Postscript: There is even a Satyajit Ray connection to the shooting site — sleuth Feluda’s fabled Sidhu Jyatha lived in Sardar Shankar Road.