Lights. Camera. Action (part 1)

In a cozy restaurant, with a beautiful view, there were cameras all around and a whole crew was waiting for their female actor. A few moments later, she came in the door and walked the hallway in her high heels, every face turned to see her, in that beautiful taffy bodycon dress she looked flawless, her jawline was sharp, like a blade, her hair was tied in a low pony. She looked gorgeous and as she walked down the hall, somebody shouted; ‘Where the hell is she?’ Tara took the next left from the main camera and walked to her table where she had to sit and pretend to have a pleasant conversation with a man, whom she never met in her life, but at least there was food.

Tara reached her table and saw a handsome man sitting over there, he looked fine and foreign to the whole environment. He saw Tara and stood up “Gentleman” Tara whispered under her breath. They shook hands and sat down. There was food on the table and two glasses of a drink that looked like wine could be juice.

‘Hi, I am Dhruv’

‘Hey, I am Tara’

‘You look beautiful’

‘Thank you, Dhruv. You look fine yourself’ Tara winked at him, which she realized later was so inappropriate. But he was so sweet he laughed, and Tara saw his oh-so-pretty smile, with those perfectly aligned teeth, so white like a pearl. He was truly the most handsome boy that she ever saw. And their beautiful moment was disturbed by a scream; ‘She is here let’s start the scene.’ So finally, the main lead was in the room and all Tara could think of was, now she would get to eat.

‘Let’s dig in’ Tara was happy.

‘But aren’t we supposed to wait till they start the camera’

‘No, now we are in character. Let them take as many takes as they want. We will not stop’

She started eating, there were fries and burgers and a drink that looked like wine.

‘Other than being an extra what else do you do Tara?’

She gulped her bite and said, ‘Nothing’

‘Nothing?’ he was not eating anything.

‘Yes, Why? This is my work.’ Tara was calm.

‘How do you pay your bills?’

‘oh.’ Tara waited for five seconds and Dhruv was still waiting for an answer, she said: ‘I don’t tell it to anyone, but you look decent.’ She looked him into the eyes and sighed; ‘I get enough to pay rent and buy clothes by being an extra on every set. I am practically in every movie you have seen in the last five years. Did you notice me anywhere? no, because I was never in focus. They need me as an extra I need that money. I work 12 hours a day and travel from one set to another.’

‘Is this money really enough for rent and food and everything else, it’s Mumbai.’

‘Yes, I live here and there, so the rent is fine. I mostly eat on sets. And you know how many followers I have on Instagram?’ he didn’t know how to react, so he just shrugged. And she said, ’34.8K’ he was surprised ‘How?’

‘I have pictures with every celebrity, I post them. People think I am a writer or someone from the crew. They just follow me. My bio says, “In show business”.’ She laughed and took a big bite of burger.

‘And you happy with this? You are good looking; you can easily steal the thunder in a room when you walked the hall today I thought you were the main lead. Why are you settling for something so low?’ he still wasn’t eating.

‘I went to zillion auditions, hired a manager and I tried A LOT. But that didn’t pay my bills, I had to do something else too and you are here for the same reason. But I am comfortable here. Not everybody is going to die a celebrity.’

He raised his eyebrows, but it wasn’t his place to say anything.

‘Leave all this, so tell me about the movies and scenes you have done. Btw you don’t look that old’ Dhruv tried to lighten the mood.

‘Are you trying to know my age. Well, my resume says I am 22.’

They both laughed.

The scene ended in three hours.

‘I am going straight to my next set. I will see you around’ she smiled and leaned to hug him. He hugged her too. ‘You didn’t mention you steal dresses too’ she gasped and said, ‘I came with the dress…… this time’.

‘I will give you a call sometime’ he said. She nodded and left.

Dhruv didn’t have any auditions to go. He went to his home and started thinking about the lovely lady he met today, human nature. It still hurt him, how she was comfortable by being an extra.

At midnight he was still thinking about her, and it reminded him about the number she shared with him. He took out his phone and opened his WhatsApp and searched through his contacts, he couldn’t find her. He refreshed the list and searched again; she was not on WhatsApp. Maybe she didn’t want him to text her, he felt disheartened but maybe this is her private number, only for important calls. He didn’t want to wait till morning, so he dialed her number. But all he heard was, “The number you are trying to reach is currently unavailable”. Oh, so she didn’t want to contact him at all. He felt crushed.

**Two Weeks Later**

Dhruv was filming for an advertisement, in the break, he came out and lit a cigarette, he took the puff and blew the air out leaving a blur in front of his eyes. And there he saw her again, he whispered ‘Tara’ and started running in her direction, he ran faster to catch her, he tapped on her right shoulder and she turned, ‘Sorry I thought you were someone else’. And he came back, thinking he was such an idiot. It’s been two weeks and he tried calling her almost every night but no luck yet. But that night he didn’t call her, he remembered their conversation, “I have 34.5K followers on Instagram” and he opened his Instagram to check for her, but he didn’t know her full name. So, he wrote “Tara” and started looking for her, he hardly remembered her face. And there she was, Tara Malhotra, her profile was locked, but from the smallest display picture, he could judge it was her, she had 35K followers and her Instagram bio said, “In show business”. That’s it. He sent her request, hoping she would accept.

‘It’s been two days and she hasn’t accepted my request yet. Why is she ignoring me?’ Dhruv was at his apartment with his roommate.

‘Dhruv it’s clear, she doesn’t want you to contact her’

‘But she was so nice and..... and……’ Dhruv’s voice got soften, ‘She was so beautiful, unreal, she was kind and I know she would not ignore me. Maybe she doesn’t recognize me. I will find her’

‘You are going crazy’ Mudit whispered

Two years passed and nothing changed. Dhruv forgot about her slowly, he still couldn’t accept the fact that she ignored him. Something was wrong there he knew, but he was tired of fighting it.

He was filming for a not-so-reality show and it was his fifth day at the set, and just like every other day he went to set with a positive vibe, but his heart was aching a little.

He took his script and went to a corner, he was memorizing his lines and a group of contestants passed him, one of the contestants said: “You remind me of Tara so much, the same smile, that bubbly nature” and Dhruv stood from his seat, he turned to see the girl, “Riya Malhotra” he shouted. All three of them stopped and they turned to see Dhruv, he was standing there in shock. Riya came forward and said: “Yes, Dhruv. What happened?” and Dhruv could see her concern, the same kindness.

‘You are Tara Malhotra’s sister?’

‘Yes, you knew her?’

‘Yes, I met her on the set. We were extras there, we talked for three hours or so. She told me about her life, pretty much everything, her friends, her love for books, and orphan kids. I tried to contact her so much after that scene, but it’s been two years an….’

‘Dhruv, Tara died five years ago’

‘What? I met her two years ago. And she was just as kind as you are. I didn’t even know her full name, I searched her on Instagram and that’s how I know her full name and now you are saying…. I ….. wha….’

‘Dhruv as you said, you didn’t know her full name maybe you met someone else. My sister died five years ago and that’s the only truth.’

‘Okay maybe you are right……’ Dhruv looked away and Riya went to her friends. ‘Do you have a picture of her?’ Dhruv asked still looking away.

‘I do. Let me show you’ Riya pulled her mobile from her back pocket and started scrolling through her Instagram. ‘Here’

Dhruv took her mobile and said; ‘Yes, that’s her, I met her two years ago’