Love Stu(m)bble

This incident dates back to a few years, when I, with a few of my friends, decided to shoot a short movie. No, do not have any grand idea. Neither was I stepping into Bollywood nor was I planning to showcase my work in the Short Films Category in the Oscars. We were just a bunch of youngsters with similar interests in films, and thus on a sudden whim wanted to try making something of our own.

Now, I was the chief planner. You can say I was in - charge of the direction, story and script. Hence, I penned down the meatiest role for me, that of a hero who could fight the baddies aka Salman Khan as well as romance his leading lady aka Shahrukh Khan. Yeah, the image of people whistling whenever I hogged the screen space was dancing in my mind.

However, we still had to find a producer, and with God's grace, we were successful. Mr. Rampal, the jewellery merchant and my neighbour, promised to don that hat.

As the D-Day approached, my excitement knew no bound. To tell you the truth, Rhea, the girl who would be playing the character of the heroine, was my childhood crush, and I had planned to propose her once the shooting was over. So you see, I had made a full proof scheme of winning her heart, to be her hero both on and off the screen.

I went to the shoot on the designated day, and found my other friends and co-actors engrossed in the script. I quickly changed into my costume. The first scene was an action sequence where I had to beat up three goons.

"Hey, you wore the wrong costume," Mr. Rampal said when I emerged out of the makeshift dressing room.

"What! The hero is supposed to wear this," I retorted.

"Yes, that's what I am saying," he replied impatiently.

"But ... but I am the hero, right?" I was surprised by his behavior.

He stared at me for a minute, and I knew the silence spelled doom. "Well, there has been a slight change this morning," he confessed.

"What change?" I was aghast. A change on the first day of the shoot, and I thought as the director I should be calling the shots.

"Manoj will be the hero for this movie. His clean shaved look is perfect, and thus I felt the role should go to him."

"And what about me?" I was enraged. I had sported the stubble intentionally to get a rough and tough edge, but now that proved disadvantageous to me.

"Well," Mr. Rampal scratched his head, and said, "Why don't you wear the costumes of one of the goons that the hero is supposed to beat up in the first scene?"

Needless to say, it was one of the worst days of my life. However, it didn't stop there, as fate decided to play a wicked game on me.

Rhea and Manoj are a happily married couple today, while I still await the entry of a heroine in my life.

This post is a part of #WillYouShave activity at BlogAdda in association with Gillette.

This post is in response to the tag by Simran. I tag the following bloggers to take up the #WillYouShave Challenge further:

1. http://soumya-hintofme.blogspot.in
2. http://jyotsnabhatia.blogspot.in
3. http://myfriendshipsimran.blogspot.com
4. http://artofleo.com
5. godyears.net
6. http://hummingwords.blogspot.in
7. http://vaisakhimishra.blogspot.in