By the second schedule in Manali, I had started to find my feet. Travelling out of Mumbai to the beautiful hills of Manali for the second schedule definitely helped. I got to know my crew, the other AD’s and things started to look up.

Imtiaz, the Director and Supreme Commander of this enterprise was easy to like and work with. This was his second film as Director and only later in retrospect did I understand how critical the film was for his career. His first film Socha Na Tha had taken about four years to make, and despite all the difficulty he faced making it, it had not got much of a release and box office. Years later, when my first Independent feature film Dear Maya had a similar fate; I could understand the kind of pain he must have gone through. I also accepted his words ‘It’s not the end’ much more convincingly than perhaps from anyone else.

In Jab We Met, however I was completely ignorant to how much rides on a film, personally and professionally for the Director. I hadn’t seen the seven years of struggle before that. I missed all the bad, before the good. So I was in my own world, having established myself as a bit of a snob on set, who occasionally scolds people for bad language and wears blue eyeliner to match her clothes.

I also established and discovered, much to my delight that I liked to party. The new sense of freedom had started to rest comfortably on my shoulders and after pack up, I along with a fellow assistant Director started making friends with all the local club owners.

Early mornings, hard work on the sets followed by late night parties became the order of the day. A real coming of age story was unfolding parallel to Geet’s verbose love life in the reel story. I was coming into my own, or losing sense of self… depends on how you look at it.

I made plenty of mistakes. Plenty. From inaccurate writing of the continuity sheets to fudging the lyrics of songs, I fumbled over and over. It was a learn-as-you-go program, sprinkled with a heavy dose of enthusiasm and peppered with thousands of apologies. I got it easy, there was no two ways about that and in exchange I swore my unending loyalty to my Captain. I worked on two more films for Imtiaz as an Assistant Director; Love Aaj Kal and Rockstar.

The lines between Reel and Real were blurry now. All the things, which seemed abrasive to me initially, no longer bothered me as I got sucked into the whirlpool of filmmaking. The volume of my life was loud, the party was thumping, my heart was racing and the rest of the world was fading. I cut ties with everyone who had previously been important to me; my school friends, my boyfriend, now I wanted different things. I wanted more. What more was, I had no idea. Since the success of Jab We Met, ‘more’ had become the order of the day.

More money, more stars, more travel, more food, more parties; everything was easy. I missed the grind, but saw the glitz. The glitz was blinding.