I was shooting at Filmalaya Studio on the 25th of June 2009 for “Radio " where Himesh Reshammiya's (HR) manager comes to me on set and tells me that HR had summoned me to the vanity and that he had some really sad news to give me. I rushed to the vanity and HR was standing at the door of the vanity van and in a very sad tone stated, " Pep.. You won’t believe what happened today.. ..Michael Jackson expired. " My heart skipped a beat... I was extremely shocked. I didn’t know how to react at that point of time and HR too seemed very disturbed by what happened.
HR then immediately asked me, “Where was MJ from?” To which I immediately answered, “Gary... in Indiana " I felt he didn’t get it at first so I told him I would give him an entire dump on the life and times of MJ from Wiki where I read about MJ. Shaking his head in shock HR returned to his vanity.
A year later, I get a call from HR. He invites me to his place for a meeting. I take Chitra along for the meeting. At the meeting, he tells us that he was starting an International venture of his own and wanted me to be a part of that project.
Unfortunately I couldn’t be a part of that project since I had just recently joined Mindshare's Film Division for Unilever. I really wish I could have worked with HR on that project. As Chitra and me were leaving, we discussed " Kajraare " with HR and how HR shouldn’t release it alongside " Dabangg ". Well that was a different story.
Two years later, I see a newsflash on TV about HR's new venture titled " A Star is Killed " and to my shock the plot of the film revolved around MJ's death. I was extremely touched at HR's gesture and how much he felt for MJ. Hats off to him leaving aside whatever the critics might have to say about this project. HR had done it again.
Photo & Article :
Pep Figueiredo, Director: Meri Ehmeeyat. Pep Figueiredo is an Indian born
award winning Short Film Maker.
