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We have to do it ourselves.
The story ofBasmati Bluesbegins in the late aughts.
It sounded great, but there was one issue: He actually hadnt seen any Bollywood films.
They say they fell in love with the form.
Life is much less planned than it is here, and in their movies, you feel that.
The idea for the plot bloomed out of a dinner party.
With Monsanto becoming public enemy No.
We had this character, and we really just liked her, Baron says.
Nobody would even go near it Why are you asking us to read a story about a musical?
The problem was, they had no songs.
I will say I really understand why there arent many independent original musicals, Caulfield said, laughing.
We didnt know what we were getting ourselves into.
Music supervisor Bonnie Greenberg had worked with a songwriter who was friends with the country band Sugarland.
All of them agreed to contribute songs without any guarantees the movie would ever get made.
Pablo arranged dinner and we got together and pitched Jeffrey, and he was really intrigued, Caulfield recalled.
It only took me two years after that dinner to get him to read the script.
Eventually Soros not only agreed to fund the film; he also came aboard as a producer.
And, in a decision that would prove fateful, she had to be American.
Rather than calculation, I think it was a lack of calculation, Baron said.
She didnt know who was producing it.
It was time to makeBasmati Blues.
(Ambudkars characters hatred of the Taj Mahal came from a man they met in real life.)
We really wanted to convey that in the film, Caulfield said.
The sense of welcome you get there is unbelievable.
We eat with our hands a lot now here too, added Baron.
Six months of preproduction had yielded a variety of locations in Tamil Nadu, in the southeast.
The filmmakers soon found out why.
There was no life.
Were shooting a movie calledBasmati Bluesand its just barren, dirty, dead fields.
Once the heat stopped, the rain started.
The last weeks of the shoot coincided with monsoon season, which meant 40 days of relentless horizontal rain.
Crews had to be evacuated.
As Caulfield put it, We got blown out of India.
The couple tried stitching together what they had, but it was a mess.
It was killing everybody.
Luckily, the financiers were onboard.
This is what we set out to do and I feel like we have to do it.
By the time reshoots began in 2015, nearly all of the crewmembers, Indian and American, returned.
Had the actress wantedBasmati Bluesto stay hidden forever, she could have easily let it.
That she didnt is perhaps proof she really did care about the movies message.
Throughout all of this, the world did not hear much aboutBasmati Blues.
A chyron promised, One woman will fight for justice.
To many viewers in both India and America, it seemed a straightforward recitation ofwhite-savior tropes.
(Its worth noting that this outrage was not unanimous.
Baron asked, rhetorically.
The opposite of what the film is about, Caulfield added.
I actually cant stress enough how horrifying that was.
It was like being punched in the stomach all day long.
As theVillage Voiceputs it, No character is as broad a caricature as its white lead.
It was symbolic of romance and weddings and love.
It just hit me so wrong that it got turned into this emblem of whiteness.
Would I do that differently?
I dont know how to answer that.
I dont know if it would have mattered, Baron said.
And they have the right to do that.
