Days before the Shoot. Akhada of Dead or Akhada of Chaos?

Filmmaking is equal parts vision and survival. And right now, I feel like I’m barely surviving.

The camera rolls on September 5th at 8 AM. I’m sitting with my team, but my mind keeps running away, looking for a quiet corner to hide. Am I getting cold feet? Maybe yes. That’s the thing about filmmaking, you can be 200% ready and still feel something’s missing. And me? I’m not even 100% ready.

As the countdown begins, chaos begins to seep in.

Every challenge we solve takes a piece of me. With every decision, every problem patched up, I feel like I’m slowly tearing myself apart. My ribcage aches. Maybe it’s nerves. Maybe it’s the weight of this film I’ve locked up inside my heart, protecting it like a treasure. But the cage is shaking. And soon, all that chaos will be unleashed.

The Art and the Chaos

The costume stylist quit. Or I fired her away. She wasn’t delivering what we needed, and five days before the shoot, I had to let her go. Costume design is supposed to be invisible yet transformative, and now I’m scrambling to fix something that should have been locked months ago. I’m a director, but today, I’m also a costume stylist.

Dogman and the Makeup Gamble

I’ve pinned a lot of hope on our makeup artist. Dogman is meant to steal the show, and with a tiny budget, she’s creating him through cosplay techniques. And it looks amazing. But I can’t stop thinking—if we’d had a little more money, prosthetics could have taken him to another level.

The Sound of Chaos

The location is alive, almost too alive. Street vendors shouting, trains rattling, stray dogs barking it’s authentic, textured, perfect for the story… but a nightmare for sound. My sound designer has already told me we’ll have to use ADR. Extra time. Extra budget. Actor availability. My brain keeps calculating, even when I pretend not to. And then another thought strikes: what if it rains?

Counting Down

These thoughts keep me up at night. My ribs hurt. My head spins. I want to break down, but I can’t. If the director collapses, the crew collapses.

So I stay standing. I stay awake. I keep moving forward. I hope I’ll deliver a story that justifies my team’s hard work and this pain in my ribs. And then? I’ll start again. Another film. Another journey. Another chaos to survive.

Four days to go. See you on the other side.