Lights, action, reaction

Following the brouhaha over the film shooting of the movie Ferrari ki Sawaari at Khareghat Colony on Hughes Road and the adjoining Doongerwadi estate earlier this month, Dastur Khurshed Dastoor wrote an angry letter to Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) chairman Dinshaw Mehta calling for "an urgent meeting of the Doongerwadi committee at your very earliest convenience, ensuring that all trustees remain present without fail. Not only I, but many community members are extremely agitated at this unsavory development.

"Jimmy Mistry and yourself were out of the country, however you both responded to the frantic calls that were made whereas Khojeste Mistree who resides in Khareghat Colony chose not to stir or act. Muncherji Cama was at Powai when contacted” and arrived at the scene later that night. Cama disapproved of the shooting as it would inconvenience the colony residents and stated that such permission should not be granted in the future.

According to Parsi Times of October 8, 2011 which broke the story, Dastoor was driving past Doongerwadi late at night on October 7 with his family when he saw bright lights blazing at Doon­gerwadi and decided to investigate. "I was shocked and surprised to see a buffet table there, toilets... and glaring lights. I went and asked who gave the permission.” His repeated attempts to talk to Mistree who lives in the colony were unsuccessful.

Social worker Feroze Kotwal, who lives in Khareghat Colony filed a complaint with the Gamdevi police and sent a letter to the joint police commissioner (law and order) regarding the shooting, notes Mumbai Mirror (MM), October 10, 2011. On the night of October 8, when the MM reporter visited the site, actors Boman Irani and Sharman Joshi were shooting a sequence driving around in a red Ferrari, the noise of the vehicle "shattering the calm and quiet of the Colony.” A spokesperson for film maker Vidhu Vinod Chopra told MM: "We have taken official permission from the BPP. If the residents have a problem they should speak to the BPP.”

In a letter to the trustees dated October 11 Mistree stated, "I was tired having stayed up until the early hours of the morning over the last three days, preparing a paper for a talk scheduled to be delivered next week… Around midnight Jimmy Mistry called me up from London and after talking to him, I realized that he too, like me, did not know anything about the film shoot or the parking of the vans at the Doongerwadi complex. Soon afterward the BPP CEO (chief executive officer) Mehli Colah called me to say that he had already spoken to the chairman who said that he had given permission for the vans to be parked there.” Mehta said that as he had already spoken to Dastoor there was no need for Mistree to take action as the matter had been settled, the letter stated.

"In view of what has happened, my recommendation to the BPP board is that such matters should be put before the board prior to any permissions being given and once and for all a resolution should be passed by the board that there should be no commercialization of the Doongerwadi complex, a view that I have held for a long time,” Mistree concluded. Permission for the shoot was reportedly granted to earn revenue for the BPP and specifically for the concerned colony.

When Dastoor finally managed to contact Mehta, who was out of the country, he was told that the BPP had only given authorization for the film crew to park vanity vans on Doongerwadi land. "I was most upset by the toilets that were put there,” Dastoor said. Eventually, the offending buffet tables and toilets were removed (a port-a-loo was subsequently seen at the entrance to the Colony, as per a report in MM of October 10).

In an e-mail to Parsiana, community activist and WAPIZ (World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis) supporter Karl Sahukar after speaking to some trustees was reportedly told that "none of them had been informed by Mehta of what was discussed... at this meeting with the residents and this matter was not tabled at the BPP board meeting. It may be noted that two board meetings have (been held) since then… The BPP trustees whom I spoke to, confirmed that they were not aware of this decision.”

While Mehta sanctioned the filming, the shoot was reportedly mentioned during a board meeting when other trustees were present.