Sadhana Pal, a household help, wakes up at the crack of dawn to be the first in queue at the roadside tap to fill her half-a-dozen water buckets. But the chilly morning of January 28 was a little different. Sadhana stepped out of her one-room tenement to a flurry of activity in Howrah’s Herachand Mukherjee Lane. This was not the usual bustle, Sadhana realised at once. Scores of unfamiliar men and women were running around, talking busily into their walkie-talkies, even as the railway tracks and the coal dump near her home seemed unrecognisable, taken over by film trolleys, giant cameras and Jimmy jibs.

“It was exciting and unnerving at the same time. I sensed that the day would be different,” said Sadhana, when t2 spotted her among the crowd, trying to get a peek at the “action”. “I thought this would be the shoot of a Hindi or Bangla film… bhebechhilam Dev ke dekhte paabo. But I don’t recognise these people,” she added. The “people” who had taken over Sadhana’s neighbourhood for the day were the cast and crew of Lion, a Hollywood biggie under the banner of The Weinstein Company, who made Calcutta their home for more than two weeks to shoot their film. 

MOTHER OF ALL JOURNEYS 

Lion tells the true story of Saroo Brierley and is adapted from his bestseller A Long Way Home. As a boy of five, Saroo was separated from his mother when he hopped on to a train by mistake and found himself in alien Calcutta. Wandering the streets of the city alone and distraught, little Saroo was taken in by an NGO and subsequently adopted by an Australian couple who took him back to their country. Years later, growing up as a young man in Hobart, Saroo embarked on a journey to trace his biological mother, armed only with Google Earth. The tale of his fascinating search — that began from Calcutta — culminating in the reunion with his mother, is the story of Lion. 

“I couldn’t believe it when I was told that a film was being made on my book. Ever since the book came out, the interest around my life has grown by the minute. Even now, I haven’t completely processed the fact that  a film is being made on the most important journey I made in my life,” Saroo, now 34, told t2 over phone from Delhi, en route to Australia after spending a week in Calcutta.
 
 

SUNNY’S LONELY PLANET

The shot of the day, filmed around a garbage dump and construction site in Herachand Mukherjee Lane involved young Saroo — played by Mumbai boy Sunny Pawar — wandering around clueless, covered from top to toe in dust, dirt and grime. As director Garth Davis and his assistants took long shots of Saroo from their trolleys fixed on the train tracks just above the dump, Sunny — confident and poised — filmed his shots with ease. 

“We auditioned 4,000 boys for the part and eventually chose Sunny. He hasn’t ever acted before, but his screen presence, his camera confidence is amazing,” said Pravesh Sahni of Take One Productions, the India producers of Lion who have Holly biggies like Slumdog Millionaire, Eat Pray Love and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel to their credit. 

As Sunny took several trips around the garbage dump, a couple of young boys — all actors — kept staring at him, even as they went about their business of lifting bricks and mortar at the construction site. A tray traditionally used to carry cement in his hand, Sunny stopped to take a look at them and then slowly walked past, looking over his shoulder even as they continued to stare at him. 

A stone’s throw away, Team Lion had set up shop at the modest-looking Syed Ahmed School, transforming the school into a hub of hubbub with vanity vans and film equipment strewn around and crew members running about constantly. Tannishtha Chatterjee — who plays an “important” role in Lion (see interview) — had finished her work for the day. “This film has been an enriching experience and this is one of the most professional set-ups I have worked with,” the actress of films like Brick Lane and Shadows of Time told t2. 

LION IN THE CITY

Parking themselves in the city since mid-January, Team Lion shot at various Calcutta landmarks — Shalimar station, Howrah station, Flurys on Park Street.... While Deepti Naval — who plays Saroj Sood, the woman who helped Saroo find a home with his Australian parents — shot at Flurys, Nawazuddin Siddiqui canned important scenes at Howrah station.
“My fondest memory of Calcutta will have to be that of Saroj Sood. That apart, Howrah station remains vivid in my mind as well as the adjoining areas I would loiter in when I was lost and finding my feet in the city,” Saroo told t2.

Oscar winner Nicole Kidman — who plays Saroo’s Australian mother — gave Calcutta a miss (she will join the team in Australia in March-April), Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel — who plays the grown-up Saroo — spent a few days in Calcutta, though he didn’t shoot in the city. “Dev wanted to get a feel of Calcutta and he was also here to acclimatise himself to the set and the film before he starts shooting,” said Sahni. Team Lion has now moved to Indore and then Khandwa where large portions of the film will be shot. Yes, Dev Patel will shoot there. “It couldn’t have been anyone else but Dev. He is a great actor who will portray me well. I am excited to meet him soon,” Saroo told t2.

But why has A Long Way Home become Lion? “That is something that will be revealed to audiences only when they see the film — you will understand when you see it,” is the word from Team Lion.

Pictures: B. Halder and Sayantan Ghosh