Tourists milling about the Inner Harbour last week got an unexpected bonus — the chance to watch a Bollywood movie being filmed.
“Omigawd, omigawd, omigawd!” cried Balpreet Atlas, 18, when she recognized Punjabi film star Neeru Bajwa (Jatt and Juliet) in action.
Atlas, 18, and her friend Kiran Dhesi, 24, came across the film unit while they were showing their Vancouver-based cousin Manpreet Punia, 23, around town.
“This is so amazing,” said Punia, who was also accompanied by her cousins Lakhvir Atlas, 16, and Simrit Atlas, 14.
The screen idol was on the home-stretch of a two-day shoot for Tere Bina, a musical mystery-comedy directed by Pankaj Batra.
Bajwa, who is also producing the film with her husband, a.k.a. Mystery Man, said she has grown comfortable shooting in Victoria after filming the romantic comedy Sardaar Ji here last fall.
“There’s a huge difference,” the actor and singer said when asked to compare the characters she plays in both films. “I played a ghost [in Sardaar Ji], and this time I’m playing a typical Indian girl on her journey of coming to Canada looking for a husband.”
The cast and crew of 20 from India and the Lower Mainland, who were here to film on the Causeway, Bastion Square, the B.C. Legislature lawn and the Sidney waterfront, is like a family, said Tarannum Thind.
“Neeru is like a sister to me. We’ve been best friends for 12 years,” said the assistant director who worked as a TV producer and anchor before getting into feature films.
“Punjabi films are attracting huge audiences, and this was a great opportunity, so this is why I took it on.”
Thind, whose duties included doing most of the film’s B.C. casting, wasn’t surprised by the amount of attention the film unit attracted on this balmy afternoon.
“Neeru’s a big star, so we’ve been used to this. Everywhere she goes she attracts a lot of people,” Thind said before the crew chowed down on gourmet hot dogs from Sam’s Deli & Bistro.
“Locally, any time you get a crew from Vancouver, for example, they love Indian food, but the crew from India wants to try what’s from here locally. They don’t want Indian food so much.”
However, the Indian food catered locally from Sizzling Tandoor during their Victoria visit got a big thumbs-up, she said.
The film unit came mostly to shoot musical sequences, said Bajwa, adding: “I’m romancing and lip-synching a bit” for songs to be released when the film opens in February.
She said films such as Tere Bina give Punjabi audiences, especially the younger generation, an ideal way to stay connected to their roots.
“It was my way to connect with my culture and language. I fell in love with Indian films,” said the Canadian-born actor. “You want to see yourself up there when you watch cinema.”
Her husband, with whom she is producing the film — a dashing fellow who could pass for a matinée idol himself — wears a mask in public and calls himself the Mystery Man for marketing purposes.
“Her fan base is intrigued with who she’s with and who she’s married to,” he said. “We do it this way because I’m not a person who really wants to be in the limelight.”
While fans such as Lakhvir Atlas are looking forward to seeing Bajwa’s next movie, he said it probably won’t be on the big screen here.
“Empire Theatres used to show them [at the old Capitol 6] but now you’ve got to go to Vancouver or wait for the DVD.”
