Stars shift gears to single shifts

<div class="section1"><div align="left" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="left" border="1" width="47.6%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script><br /><a href="javascript:popUp(&quot1;/photopop/msid-151296,type-0.cms&quot1;)"> <img border="0" align="left" src="/thumb.cms?msid=151296&height=243&width=243" hspace="12" /></a></div> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal">Click to enlarge</div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal">There was a time, not so long ago, when double-shifts meant ''double trouble'' for producers and triple shifts meant sure heart trouble for the financiers.<br /><br />In the late seventies and early eighties, I remember how the double shift system was the norm, and the bane of many a filmmaker.<br /><br />You had stars like Govinda, Mithun, Jeetendra and some more, doing two, even three shifts; shooting round the clock to get as many projects out of the way as possible. But it had more to do with insecurity rather than an actual desire to complete a great body of work, I think.<br /><br />Govinda had once confessed to me, "God knows about tomorrow. I need to make a lot of money and fast. Is Industry ka kya bharosa? Is life ka kya bharosa? I have to work round the clock to provide my family with the stability they need."<br /><br />And it was this insecurity that kept Govinda burning the midnight oil. I remember one late night, almost 1 am, I was leaving a film mahurat party from a Bandra hotel, and I saw the actor walking in. ''Late?'' I asked, implying the entry into the party. "No, I''m on time" he clarified. Elaborating later that he was actually arriving to dub at the theatre there, till 3 am for a completed movie, and this after shooting three shifts during the day. I felt tired just listening to him.<br /><br />It was the same insecurity that had driven Mithun too, probably. Coming from his self-proclaimed, modest background, he too needed to rake in the moollah as soon as possible. <br /><br />And as for Jeetendra, it was not so much the financial insecurity as the need to continue working. So he kept coming back, first with Rekha, then with Sridevi and then again with Bhanupriya and a host of actresses from the South. No wonder he was the lucky star.<br /><br />And as for the actresses, well.. what the heroes did, the heroines did too. So you had all of them dashing around doing their shifts too, double, treble - the works.<br /><br />It was Aamir Khan, after Dilip Kumar first tried it years ago, who was keen to do only one shift at a time. He was mocked at.<br /><br />Then Shah Rukh too announced that he would do one shift only, and no work on Sundays. It was declared ''family day''. And hey presto, suddenly ''family ties'' were in.<br /><br />It was one shift, one film, at a time only. The new norm, rather than the exception. All the makers were doing it with joy. From Yash Chopra, to Yash Johar, to Subhash Ghai - suddenly they were all ready to complete films at one go instead of having to wait endlessly for star dates.<br /><br />And it was a formula that worked, because suddenly all the movies had a freshness to them and an uninterrupted continuity flow.<br /><br />Suddenly the movies looked normal - like Aamir''s Dil Chahta Hai where his goatee and his hair style looked made-for-the-project. Unlike earlier days, where Sunjay Dutt''s hair looked short, long, floppy, and spiky in consecutive scenes in the same film. And the greatest vindication to the single shift system was when the culprit of the three-shifts, Govinda himself, decided to switch to the method of self enforced discipline.<br /><br />Maybe its got a lot to do with his turning producer, but he''s a new man. One shift, one film and they are both giving him a lot of sukh. That''s the name of the new film he''s producing - ''Sukh'' and that''s what''s giving him a lot of peace too.<br /><br />But the other producers seem happy too, at the new improved Govinda. <br /><br />And suddenly there are no exceptions to the golden rule of 9am-9pm shifts. And happiest are the producers who don''t have to wait endlessly for stars to arrive from another shoot.<br /><br />Sukhi Govinda most of all. <br /><br /><br /></div> </div>