Pune plays host to Brangelina star show

PUNE: Running now in Pune is a Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie starrer, with media persons chasing the star couple across the city. She, of course, is here for work, a 20-day shooting schedule for ‘A Mighty Heart,’ the film based on the book written by Mariane Pearl, wife of slain ‘Wall Street Journal’ journalist, Daniel Pearl. Ms Jolie plays the role of Mariane, while Dan Futterman, US actor, plays Daniel Pearl.

The film is being shot in Pune’s quiet, tree-lined, very upmarket Sind Housing Society, in Aundh, with the crew having taken over three bungalows. Bungalow No 223, ‘Nayansukh,’ which belongs to Barrister Mohan Pungaliya, has been renamed Zamzama, 4th Street, CDS, referring to the defence enclave house in Karachi where the Pearl couple had lived in ‘01. This is the bungalow where the actual filming is being done from Monday.

Two other adjacent bungalows have been taken over, one as a green room and the other for the stars to relax in. Barricades, white wash, makeovers: all that is needed to get the ambience and security, has been done. Most important, the television crews and the international press corps has been chased away to a safe distance by the personal security team of the star couple.

On location with the film crew are three constables from the Pune police department and a large contingent from an Indian private security services company. Part of the on-going Brangelina show in the city has been the hide ’n’ seek games the star couple has played with the photo-journalists waiting to snap them. Decoy cars chased by the photographers while the couple whizzed out in the city’s famous three-wheeler rickshaws, all of that has happened here, not once but twice since the couple checked in.

The actual film has been over-shadowed by the larger-than-life presence of the top Hollywood stars, who have been followed by a contingent of close to 30 international paparazzi. For days, the city’s media, print and electronic, has gone ga-ga over the couple, staking them out in the five star hotel, Le Meridien, where they are putting up.

What this has achieved is that the star couple and their oldest son, Maddox , have been holed up in the hotel, venturing out for just a couple of rickshaw rides. And there are reports that they have had some shopping done for them, by the security personnel, in the hotel’s shopping arcade.

There is another angle to the Brangelina visit. Hordes of NGOs and others are vying to get in touch with the stars, to touch them for a donation. Ms Jolie is believed to have expressed a desire to visit the city’s snake park. Keeping in mind her generous support to international animals organisations, she is bound to be a star visitor at the snake park.
“We have received calls from Friday, that they want to visit the Snake Park at Katraj,” Shriram Shinde, secretary, Indian Herpetological Society, said. He added that they have extended an invitation to them, asking only that the stars follow the park’s regular timings while they will ensure the privacy of the star family. “We would prefer their coming during our regular hours when it will not disturb the animals in the park,” Mr Shinde said.

The film crew, lead by British director, Michael Winterbottom, is booked into two of the city’s leading hotels, the Taj Blue Diamond and Le Meridien. The bookings at Le Meridien comprise a combination of six suites and rooms, they are believed to have booked close to 40 rooms at the Taj Blue Diamond.

Given the security surrounding the star couple, there have been a few run-ins, between their security personnel, television and camera persons. Some heated exchanges have happened too. That, of course, is part of the movie running in
real time in Pune.

The Daniel Pearl story is being part-filmed here since Karachi would not have been safe. It may be recalled that Daniel Pearl was investigating Al Qeada links and was getting too close to the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, when he was killed. Sheikh Rashid, an LSE alumnus, who is today imprisoned by Pakistani intelligence agencies but has neither faced a trial nor been handed over to the US, is believed to have masterminded the killing.