Federer Frenzy

My most memorable assignment has to be when I got to visit the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne in 2019. Andrew from Tennis Australia greeted me by saying: “You are a Roger Federer fan, ain’t you?” Still raking my head over what gave that away! He took me all around Melbourne Park where the first Grand Slam of the year gets played out. Though I was visiting in June (and freezing while at it), I enjoyed every bit of it. Safe to say that their souvenir shop is where most of my dollars were spent!
—Anannya Sarkar

220 seconds of fame

A ripped Peter Something sits in the middle of a five-star hotel lobby, surrounded by journalists. Shades on, top two buttons of his shirt undone, gel in hair and a smirk on his face. Bring on the questions, said his posture but the 50-odd journalists were busy with their sandwiches and coffee. What Peter didn’t realise was that his three-minute 40-second-long hit song was already 10 years old and what’s that saying? Out of sight, out of mind?
—Mathures Paul

Playing Cat and mouse

Many, many years ago I had gone to watch a film in a dilapidated single-screen theatre to prepare for an interview that was scheduled to take place the day after. I was settled in my rickety seat with high expectations. The film was about a gripping cat-and-mouse chase between cops and robbers but little did I know that something similar would play out near me in the theatre! I felt something large and warm on my feet, and before I had a chance to react, I saw a white, fur-ball rushing between seats and heading towards me. Apparently, the cat, a regular at the theatre, had spotted a mouse that had landed on my feet. For the next couple of minutes, as the hero rained blows on the villain on screen, I desperately tried to do an awkward dance and get out of the way of the cat-and-mouse story unfolding around my feet.
—Arindam Chatterjee

A meal to remember

Having been in the business of interviewing and interacting with film personalities for 15 years, there are quite a few quirky encounters I can encounter, a few pretty much unprintable. One of the funniest was landing up at a five-star hotel in the city a few years ago to interview the Deols — dad Dharmendra and sons Sunny and Bobby — for their film Apne. Dharamji, having just arrived, was tired and insisted on lying down on the sofa in his suite while I sat on the edge of the couch and spoke to him. That was both hilarious and strange! After wrapping up my interviews with the Deol sons, I was on my way out, but Dharamji insisted that I could only go after I had lunch with them, a request echoed by his sons. I sat at a huge dining table with at least 20-25 dishes, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian in front of us, and (I kid you not!) at least 50 parathas right in front of my nose. A long and leisurely meal later, Bobby got up to whip up some lassi for his family (I politely declined) right there!
—Priyanka Roy

Missed Connections

Well, having worked at the same organisation for 15 years, I have a ‘treasure trove’ of memories. In a mad rush to meet the deadline, I once texted superstar Jeet: ‘Hi Jeet, this is Jeet...!” It’s been 13 years. My old Nokia set from which the text was sent, ceases to exist. And, I am still waiting for Jeet’s reply!
There was this other time when I dialled a senior colleague’s number, thinking it was a fashion designer who went by the same name! When I bumped into the ever sporting colleague the next day, he smiled at me: “You called me the other day?’
— Anonymous

Quote for the night

I once called a renowned DJ on the phone to ask him about his experience playing at a popular gig in Kolkata. We needed his thoughts to include in the post-event coverage. I told him, “Hey, could you please share a quote with me?” Very promptly he told me it was Rs 20,000 for one evening. There was a definitive silence as it clicked in both our minds how the conversation had gone for a toss. With a straight face, I tried explaining to him what I meant by a quote and he tried to gulp his embarrassment and answer my question. Let’s just say neither of us has really recuperated from the incident!
—Shrestha Saha

Fawad for the win

Those who know me know how much I crush on Fawad Khan. I count myself lucky that I was able to meet him just before the man crossed over to the other side (of the border, of course!). It was in March 2016 that I found myself in Mumbai’s Mehboob Studio waiting to interview Fawad (and Sidharth Malhotra and Alia Bhatt) for Kapoor & Sons. My legs were actually shaking — it’s never happened before or since — as I walked up the steps of his vanity van and saw him getting his make-up done. He was warm and charming, as I had expected him to be, and at the end of the interview, much at ease by then, I told him that a few colleagues and I had started a WhatsApp fan group dedicated to him called — wait for it! — ‘Fawad Melts Our Ovaries’. Long pause. Intense look. Longer pause. Even more intense look. I panicked. He then laughed out loud and said, “Wow, that’s something! I’ll make sure I tell my wife that!” Me: nervous smile and... phew and grrrr!
—Priyanka Roy

A comic turn

During a recent interview with comedian Sumukhi Suresh, the ice was broken with different decibels of laughter. The two of us had connected on a Zoom audio chat and me taking advantage of the situation was cosy in my PJs and literally just-out-of-bed hair. This is when Sumukhi said, “Hey, if we’ve already made the effort to come on a call, let’s just put our videos on!” In my mind I thought, “You said what now?”. I jumped up and tried to figure out how I’d make myself NOT look like a character from The Walking Dead. This is when Sumukhi cracks a joke about applying make-up and comforts me by saying that it’s absolutely fine if I was in my PJs. Sweet! So there I go, putting on my video as did she. She, looking pretty, beautiful and smile-y. Me, a jacket potato. “You tricked me!” I said laughing to which she did a mini, “Yes!”. I don’t know what I was expecting but the conversation was a smooth one right after that. In short, Sumukhi not only enjoyed my PJs but also knew what they look like.
— Urvashi Bhattacharya

Poop Attack

Since the time I joined t2, fashion shoots have been the most exciting assignments for me. After each shoot, I come back home with a bunch of memories. However, one of my most memorable and quirky shoot experiences is the shoot of designer Abhishek Dutta’s Creepy Crawly collection. Be it a shoot or a show, Abhishek always makes spectacular arrangements. And for this particular shoot, he had brought an eagle to the venue to be a part of the shoot! That was the first time I saw an eagle up-close and got a chance to touch it a little too! Well, the extremely quiet and majestic eagle made our shoot memorable when it started shitting continuously during its only shot with the actor, making the team go ROFL!
—- Priyanka A. Roy