Mark Skelton

The story of this great freedom fighter was being made into a Bollywood (Bombay-Hollywood) screenplay while I was in India. The film Legend of Bhagat Singh directed by Rajkumar Santoshi was released in 2002 on the 55th anniversary of Indian independence.

A veteran film extra from Montreal, Canada with over 20 films to my credit I have worked with Leslie Neilson, Ophelia Winters, Eddie Murphy, Vanessa Williams, Bo Derek, William and Alex Baldwin, Ben Afflick, and Morgan Freeman. Now it was Ajay Devgan in Pune.

A semi-retired alchemist in his early 50’s I was in India in search of the inner self. Two weeks of intense dynamic and vipassana meditations, lectures and courses at the Osho Commune International in Pune provided food for ‘no-thought’ and spiritual revelations. It was a soul rattling experience and a serious subject matter. However, following this, another more frivolous life adventure awaited me.

The German Bakery is a foreigners meeting point in Koreagon Park a district characterized by British colonial mansions many of which are in decay. While drinking herbal tea and eating fruit museli I was accosted by Nash (short for Nasser) who is an independent recruiting agent of Iranian extraction looking for foreign talent to work as extras in Bollywood. Nash asked me if I wanted to be an “English gentleman” in a major Bollywood movie that was being filmed locally. I would be paid Rs.600 (Cdn$20) per day including transportation and lunch. This remuneration is equivalent to the Cdn$100 per day paid for a Montreal shoot.

The next day at 7:30AM ten foreigners set out for the film set on a minibus. Oddly enough two of them were also Marks – one from Australia and the other from New Zealand. We became Mark I, Mark II and Mark III. With us were two German women - Nadia, an actress on vacation and Aneeta, an Osho sannyasin - three Iranians and two Israelis. Our group was to appear as proper English men and women from the early 1900s. Men were shaved with freshly made cream and blade and their hair trimmed short. Women were powdered and rouged accordingly. I sported a distinguished pith helmet.

I had the good fortune to befriend Jonathan Ryan, a London West End theatre actor, who was in India seeking cinematic fame and adventure. He played the role of Emerson, a key British magistrate. Jonathan was the only bona fide Englishman on the set at the time I was there. Two expatriate South African teachers played the roles of policemen dressed in white one of them was Saunders, the Englishman on a motorbike shot by Bhagat Singh.

Aneeta, Ajay Devgan and Mark (author).

The role of Bhagat Singh was played by Ajay Devgan who is popular among Indians as is Wayne Gretsky to Canadians and James Bond to the world. That is why I appeared so pumped up in my accompanying photograph with him where he appears his usual sly and demure self.

Around the film set crowds of Ferguson College students were retained behind cordons and security. They appeared excited at the opportunity to watch a film shoot and catch a glimpse of Ajay Devgan.

However, the extras and I, the “English gentleman,” intrigued them as we went about taking their pictures. They were also thrilled to get my autograph, which for me was an “extra’s” circumstantial fame.

There were other Indian actors and many extras to make up the 1928 Lahore city street scene. Turbaned men, Parsees, sadhus, soothsayers, militia, veiled women, children, and a snake charmer. I was a passenger with three others in a 1920’s Dodge Brothers motor coach. We also rode in an Avon sports coupe and horse drawn carriages.

Even after three days of shooting I am unrecognizable in any of the shots chosen for the final movie, a common fate for the extras. There was still another chance; I had been fitted with a white wig and a black robe for a role as a judge in the courtroom scene. The only problem was that it was to be shot in a few weeks. I had been put up at the Season’s apart-hotel sharing it with Assistant Directors Girish and Tyron and other foreign extras for about a week.

During this time I had the opportunity to audition for the speaking role of Crown Prosecutor in another court scene. Thom, the Norwegian man originally chosen for the part, froze during the filming. When I was asked to audition in substitute I was also intimidated by the dynamics of the scene. The prosecutor was to act as a belittling and disdainful villain unmoved by the chanting of Inqualab Zindabad (Long live the Revolution!) and the euphoric heroes. For an untrained actor it is difficult to maintain the composure necessary for such roles. The meditations I underwent during my stay at the commune had left me at peace with myself. Acting out the aggressor was stressful and made me ill. It was not for me.

I could have stayed on as a dilettante in a ballroom scene and a judge in the courtroom scene, but it could not be predicted when the shoots would be made. It is one thing waiting for hours while on a set, being pampered and paid, and another when waiting days for a potential role. India had many other exotic adventures awaiting me.

The film Legend of Bhagat Singh was released in June 2002.

Mark, Lida and another extra.

Mark and other extras.

Ferguson College crowd at the shoot.