Thursday, April 7, 2011

Fun With Fan Videos -How I Made Tarak Smile

    So everyone by now knows that Jr. NTR aka Tarak is my favorite Hero. This is my new favorite picture of him. Why? Because he is looking directly AT ME! No I didn't go to Hyderabad nor did he come to my Twin Cities. I made a fan video that he was shown and this is a screencap from when he saw it. Uff!  I know, I might be too old to make a fangirly video for a movie star but the opportunity presented itself and I just couldn't pass it up. Even though I am very shy by nature, I made a video and part of it aired on the Telugu gameshow Abhimani.
    The gameshow features a star and the contestants are all fans that compete to answer trivia questions about the star and his movies. Besides trivia there are a variety of other competitions all revolving around the featured star. The host is the actor Rajiv Kanakala and the first guest of the premier episode was Tarak.
      Between the contests, they showed video messages from fans. It was so fun to make a video and get the chance to send a message directly to Tarak. We fans get so much enjoyment and pleasure from our favorite Heroes and Heroines but we never get to thank them or tell them how much joy they add to our lives.  I can't tell you how thrilling it was to get that chance and make my favorite Hero smile.
Here is the video from the show. My friend Marcia and I made the videos one evening after work. We are at the beginning of this segment.



     It is only a couple of minutes but alot of work went into getting the videos for the show and I am not just talking about what I did to make those few seconds. The whole segment was Harsha from NandamurifansDB's idea. He wrote a thread about it explaining the process from start to finish. Subhash Harsha!
     Now I have a confession to make, the video I made was a  little longer than what was shown. Well actually it was almost 7 minutes long. Uff dah.  (Just because I am shy does not mean I don't talk alot once I get going.) I had a whole series of things that I wanted to be sure and say and I figured this would be my only chance to speak directly to Tarak so I did what any fan would do right? I assumed the producers of the show would edit it how ever they wanted and I wasn't sure any of it would be chosen to air anyway so I decided to go for it. 
    I had an outline in my head and then practiced saying it outloud over and over one  cold February evening while  I walked my dogs. The next day my friend Marcia came over and we made the videos in my basement, with my daughter Nyambura handling the camera.  I was advised to speak slowly so I could be understood, and I tried to tone down my Minneh-soh-dah accent, so I ended up not sounding like me at all. And then I had to put the videos together and convert and up load and all that. Man! It was a major learning curve for me just to get the videos to Harsha.
    So here are the videos, the first part is the video I made, then Marcia's, then we did a third that was Marcia and me together saying the same things. I would take the third part off the video but I don't know how, so don't feel compelled to watch the whole thing. We really do just repeat ourselves.



    I was initially a little disapointed that so little of my video aired, but then Harsha reassured me that Tarak saw a lot more of the video than what was televised. The only part I know for sure he didn't see is when I thanked him for my Twitter Birthday greeting. I was really glad to find out he saw the part where I talked about my Student's reactions to Yamadonga. I wish I could have seen his and the audience's reaction to that. I bet they all loved it. The whole experience was so fun and it really was just so thrilling to see I made him smile!

7 comments:

  1. Loved the extended video, and all of the sweet, heartfelt things that you said.

    I do worry that there is another die-hard Tarak fan in Minnesota who is going to track you down and challenge you to a machete fight to determine "#1 fan" status.

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  2. Congrates JJ.... Finally u hv got a chance to make ur hero smile... Awesome extended video. Liked too much. U hv told some great feelings by ur heart. All the best for other awesome blog posts.

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  3. Hi jjake, I really enjoyed your video, even the long version. :) It was fun seeing what you look like, too.

    Now I see that you have asked a lot of questions about second wives in the Brindaavanam thread at Bollywhat, so I thought I'd answer here.

    First, Krishna (the god) had 8 wives, or 16,008, if you want to be strict about it. :) He married the 8 wives one by one during the course of his life, and the 16,000 were princesses who were imprisoned by a rakshasa, whom Krishna killed. When they were freed, they all said they wanted to marry him, so he obliged.

    Historically, only kings had multiple wives, and usually to form political alliances rather than for mere pleasure. But only one of them would be designated the "head" wife, and her children were the ones that were directly in line to the throne. Each wife was supposed to be provided separate quarters.

    Some wealthy merchants or landowners might on occasion marry more than one wife. It was usually no more than two, and again, each wife was supposed to have a separate establishment. Among wealthy landowners and zamindars, it was more usual to have a mistress on the side, who would also have her own separate establishment, though she was not officially a wife, and her children would not be entitled to inherit anything from their father, even though the relationship was widely known and there was no question of paternity.

    In modern times, as you said, bigamy is illegal for Hindus (each religion has its own separate laws on these matters in India), and there are actually rather severe punishments -- but only if the first wife lodges a formal complaint. On the other hand, bigamy is perfectly legal if the first wife gives her permission first. Since such legally sanctioned second marriages are quite rare, the more usual procedure is to have an "unofficial" second wife, often without the first wife's knowledge, let alone consent. The children of such a relationship are not legally recognized, and have no claim on the father's property. This is the class that NTR jr. falls into.

    The actor Krishna, whom you also mentioned, married the actress Vijayanirmala, and each of them were married to other people at the time, whom they divorced before marrying each other. So they don't fall into this category at all.

    And finally, about caste -- theoretically, anyone from any caste could marry multiple times according to Hindu religious law; there were only restrictions on which caste their spouse had to be from.

    And, just to make life more interesting, there are several indigenous tribes in India who practice polyandry (even today), and this is officially and legally recognized by the government.

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  4. Oh Thank You so much for the info Wannabe! And thanks for visiting my blog too! So it's really only illegal if the head wife complains..interesting. I hadn't read that Krishna divorced Mahesh's mom that is why I was under the impression he was still married to her. I hope you will post this info on Bollywhat too.

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  5. I'm so glad for you! I know Jr. NTR is your favourite hero, must have been special to have this opportunity to adress him. Were you nervous? :)

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  6. @Remini LOLS No I wasn't nervous cuz it was just me and Marcia and Nyambura in my basement! I did practice alot so I could say it all without messing up. We had to stop and start a few times.. Now if I had to do that in front of him or an audience I wouldn't have been able to. I am really much to shy...I think one on one I could if I ever met him though.

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  7. Hi Jjake, I would like to correct some info you've been given - in Hinduism, bigamy is an offence even if the first wife doesn't object or gives consent.

    http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/chennai/bigamy-criminal-offence-says-court-269

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