The Bollywood Landscapers

Yea catchy title right but i guess it fits right...back in the early 90s when mediocre films were ruling the roost my dad was a struggling little nurseryman in the city of dreams...what happened next would change the direction of the nursery completely...from a nursery that aspired to make and sell plants right in the heart of the city we became what id like to call "Overnight Gardeners"

My dad 1st met some amazing old time art directors ....from the legendary R.Varman to the sublime Sameer Chanda (one of my fav)...he worked with the likes of Nitin Desai Sudendu Roy satish chipkar and the list went on.there were some hilarious movies he worked on from the David Dhavan flicks to mahesh bhatt movies of the 90s I distinctly remembering playing cricket on the sets of Om Jai Jadeesh (hahahha) me and an old friend going to the sets of kano na pyaar hai(we were terrified of this back up dancer with a purple wig and big glasses)so ya basically a large part of my childhood i spent running wild on the sets of 90s bollywood movies.
           Over the years the mantle was passed down to mom who took the industry by storm with her ikebana arrangements....so basically post 1999 almost all the grand weddings you saw in movies...the flowers were arranged my mom...

Ya now don't really look at shah rum and shushmitas expressions look at the flowers all around...back in the day when every movie had 2 have a wedding song and dance mom was right there decorating them sets which some amazing flower arrangements.At times as large 30FT tall cause "Madam ji yeh international shade hai....US of america mien ek dum grand Shadi" yea we get these kinds of references.
       Come to this day most of the art directors of today be it the amazingly sweet Rajat podar(barfee,city lights,etc etc) Narendra Rahuekar(chennai express,singham) Jayant Deshmukh(Ram Leela etc etc) shamishta roy(all your dharma movies) Sabu cyril(ra one,krish,om shanti om) Mustapha dada (yahaan) Sunil babu(english vinglish)Sunil nigvekar(all your RGV movies) washik khan(dabang movies)....once again the list goes on n on n on but what remains constant is their landscape guys...heres some of our latest work

So while we were greening up the large screens we also worked extensively on television...from old school soaps to new reality shows they all took plants from us yes all your "K serials the endless mahabhart remakes from the b.r chopra one to the ekta kapoor one all had our plants...not to mention C.I.D man these guys have been my favourite customers they have been hiring out a fixed 45 plants for 15 days a month for the last 12 years!!!now isn't that some thing :-)

       Whats awesome about these sets is that i get to really test myself i 12 hours to set up huge spaces working round the clock with 50-60 workers to instruct over a microphone...absolutely love it. The nursery gets strange requests at times "sir we need 1 truck of dry leaves" or "sir do u have dead plants  we need to show explosion" or the funniest one i just got "sir i want to show switzland koi english jhaadi hai kia...i was like wtf" as quirky and funny this land of bollywood is its an absolute pleasure to work in you get to meet some amazing people eat some tasty food and travel the length and breath of the country for free!!! 

FREE Tree Campaign !!!!

Driving round the city iv come across a large number of dead barks of trees paying homage to its once glorious self..iv highlighted the impotence of the BMC in several of my previous article...the tree authority is a sham ...a body that was made to protect trees has committed itself to destroying the last few green lungs that the city has left.Tree Authority of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation gave the green signal to cut 2,000 trees for several infrastructure projects in the city, and transplantation of 2,000 of which i might add 28 survived!
Set up to protect and preserve the city's green cover, the Authority-comprising politicians, bureaucrats and tree experts-has according to environmentalists become more of a mute spectator in its depletion, granting chopping orders without checking whether replanting or transplanting is being followed. Reasons given for the green slaughter range from road-widening to private projects most of them malls,showrooms etc....The BMC Tree Census Says Mumbai’s Green Population Has Doubled From 9.5 Lakh In 1998 To 19 Lakh Now. But What Else Can You Expect, Ask Environmentalists, When Even Weeds And Dead Trees Are Counted And Parameters Are Changed To Inflate Figures

How happy were you when you got to know some fancy clothing brand opened a huge outlet in your vicinity?...did you think it was awesome that an electronic mega store put 1000 plasma tvs on its wall beside your house? but spare a thought for the once majestic green being who held its ground for decades before money hungry cooperates mercilessly poisoned it...! it's a rather sickening feel to look at trees that have turned black shorn of the green. The colour of the wood is weather beaten and there are several of them standing dead scattered all around the city.

Im not one to plant a tree and fee iv done a favor to the world i also aint one who is pro this so called "development" of our country but i find it rather hard to make a difference in this city which seems to have embraced concrete and the color grey with a vengeance trees have been reduced to decorative fluff pieces to decorate this mass of grey we call our city.iv come up with a simple yet effective idea my blog get roughly 350 views a day ....which means 10,000 a month the idea is to give out "FREE TREES" to everyone no holds barred.

Young ,old,student,worker,ruler, et al drop by please each one of you could make a difference think about this...10,000 trees every month 1,20,000 a year! just from this one blog. Iv got a whole bunch of natives to give away share this guys on your Facebook pages ,on your blogs on twitter the more you share the more trees we give ...1 tree for 1 person get your friends get everyone ....as jack black would say lets "stick it to the man" lets show the so called developers that we don't need them to develop out green spaces your free saplings awaits you!