Rumour has it that there is a film being made on every table at the coffee shops in Yari Road, Seven Bungalows, Four Bungalows, Versova and Oshiwara. Let me break the news to you: this is not a rumour. On an average day, you can spot folks related to the film industry sitting in cafés, assiduously writing, networking, meeting people, watching online content, researching, gossiping… All for that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow: a film.
The writers
Most writers working out of a coffee shop are either the ones who have not made it yet or the kind not cut out for writing in isolation. Or both, like yours truly. That inexplicable feeling of writing while sitting in the middle of a crowd, that’s a high. It’s almost like the people milling around you are an energy force that helps you translate thoughts onto paper.
There are other advantages. You bump into a lot of friends; you can spot a few famous people. Supriya Pathak and Pankaj Kapur walked into Starbucks, Andheri, as I was typing this. They have discovered this coffee shop recently and have become regulars. Some people might call this celeb-spotting a distraction, but for me, these are well deserved breaks between deadlines. We all need them in order to be continuously productive. Recently a friend asked me, “How can you write in such coffee shops, which resemble an overcrowded railway station?” And not so long ago, I too poked fun at the regular writer-patrons.
Then something happened. In December 2013, after I came back from the shoot of my first feature film as a writer ( Running Shaadi.Com , produced by Shoojit Sircar), I met a guy named Sumit Arora (now a friend, also the writer of Abhishek Bachchan’s All is Well ) who used to go café-hopping to write. Arora feels motivated to write, aided by overpriced coffee and the guilt that comes along with it. Under his influence, I have taken to writing in coffee shops like a fish takes to water. It is as if I was always meant to write with my headphones on, using the free Wi-Fi and paying Rs. 200 for a green tea that’s actually worth Rs. 10. Ok, I’m joking. Every writer actually dreams of having a fancy pad with a sea view for inspiration. So do I. Till I get one, a café will do.
P.S. : Arora now has a writing pad in Juhu and has vowed never to write in a coffee shop. He intends to sit there just to drink coffee.
The directors
You can often spot director Sameer Sharma ( Luv Shuv te Chicken Khurana ) meeting upcoming actors, giving his two bits on the career path they should take. These are what I call the ‘ gyaan lo, coffee pilao ’ meetings. Any person who has made anything remotely consequential is chased by upcoming actors, assistant directors and technicians seeking advice. These meetings work as a great way to pass time for a director who is between films, while the seeker understands a thing or two about where he or she is headed in filmdom. You can often see Atul Sabharwal (director of Yashraj Films’ Aurangzeb and the cult TV series Powder ) reading a book or meeting people.
Not long ago, you could spot Akshay Roy (director of YRF’s upcoming Meri Pyaari Bindu ) writing while waiting for his film to begin. Roy had pitched around 10 scripts before he finally got down to making his debut, which, ironically, is not written by him. Another regular is Danish Aslam who is making a web series after a not-so-successful debut with Imran Khan’s Break kay Baad . And then you have Anurag Singh, who I call the Raj Kumar Hirani of Punjabi cinema. Singh is a regular at Starbucks, Andheri, along with his wife, but I hear that he is now moving to an office. I wonder if he will ever use his office though, since he is so used to the coffee shop vibe.
Some time last year, I even saw an RJ-turned-director distributing free tickets for the solitary show of his film at PVR Citimall, to make his producer believe that the film is a success. And it’s not just the new lot out there who are seen in the cafés. Of late, Indra Kumar, director of the 1990 megahit, Dil , is often sighted at Starbucks, Andheri, trying to assess the pulse of the new audience.
The producers
There is a wannabe producer called ‘Shahrukh Khan’, who keeps roaming around coffee shops posing as the cousin of Aamir Khan. I had first met him in 2008 and he still has not made a film. Every time you meet Shahrukh, he would claim to have three films on the floors by the coming March. That March seems unlikely to ever arrive. Earlier, people of his ilk were often spotted in the food court of Infiniti Mall and the now-closed Mega Mall.
The actors
Sometime in 2011, I had an actor flatmate who told me that he did not visit any coffee shops as one of his directors had told him that he would be over-exposed before his big launch. The actor in question is Siddharth Malhotra! Okay, I’m joking. Unfortunately, neither my flatmate, nor his aspiring director, ever made it in films.
It’s perhaps because they have no clue how the industry works. For an upcoming actor, a coffee shop is the best place to be spotted by upcoming writers and directors. But, of course, you need to be subtle about it. Being over the top about your presence won’t work. To get yourself noticed is a talent that has to come naturally to you or needs to be honed. Many actors who have made it have perfected this art over the years. Only now, they don’t need to practise it. The work comes to them; they don’t need to seek it out.
The author is the writer of the soon-to-be released Running Shaadi.com and director Abhishek Dogra’s next film. He will soon be making his directorial debut for a film produced by Luv Ranjan.
A Ready Reckoner of cafés
A quick tour of the ten best Bollywood coffee shops
1.Starbucks, Andheri:
Great coffee, free Wi-Fi, superb eating options and eye candy, for both guys and girls.
2. Leaping Windows,Versova:
Great ambience, free Wi-Fi. You can often bump into Nawazuddin Siddiqui and the gorgeous actor, Sugandha Garg. The coffee, however, leaves a lot to be desired, as does the confusing menu. But the eggs are good.
3. Coffee By Di Bella, Versova:
Great waffles, reasonably priced coffee. Frequented by the crew at Clean Slate Films (Anushka Sharma’s production house).
4. Moshe’s, Juhu:
Everything is average here, but it is a great place to charge your laptop in case you want to sit in Prithvi Café later on and write.
5. San Churros, Andheri:
The Abhay Deol of cafés — nice, quiet and simple.
6. Bru, Versova:
Used to be quite the hotspot at one point in time, with reasonably priced coffee and snacks, along with Deepak Dobriyal and gang for company. Now, a thing of the past.
7. Chai Coffee, Versova:
Great food. A lot of television creative teams practically live here. So if you are an aspiring TV actor, this is the place to visit. Fun fact: Sushant Singh Rajput was once a regular here. And a wannabe actor joined the place as a server in the hope of getting to meet the queen of TV, Ekta Kapoor.
8. Prithvi Café, Juhu:
The best place to write, eat and meet folks. The only issue: there’s no Wi-Fi and plug points. Best to head here with a fully charged laptop.
9. The Bagel Shop, Bandra:
Great food, but overpriced like everything else in Bandra. All ‘Yo People’ work out of here. There’s another phrase used for the folks here: ‘English Gentry’.
10. Starbucks, Khar:
Replica of the Andheri outlet, the only difference is that it is situated below the office of Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment. Legend has it that it was started at the behest of his son, Aryan. No wonder it is referred to as ShahBucks.
There are some legendary coffee shops that are no longer operational, but are part of Bollywood lore. Like the ‘Karan Johar wala Costa’ in Khar, situated below the former Dharma Productions office. It shut just a few months before Dharma moved to Andheri. Then, there was the Barista at Versova that has been replaced by Chai Coffee. If you had to look back at where the trend of writing and working from cafés began in Bollywood, it was in the mid-2000s, right here.
