Baby Boomer

GUZZLING Red Bull at midnight, music video director Shareen Mantri is close to losing it. 8220;It8217;s bad news when your sets are not re...

GUZZLING Red Bull at midnight, music video director Shareen Mantri is close to losing it. 8220;It8217;s bad news when your sets are not ready on time,8221; says the visibly tired Mantri at a suburban Mumbai studio.

But you won8217;t hear any profanities being hurled across these sets. Mantri instructs the crew to strip the yellow lights and substitute them with white ones. 8216;8216;I just give people a few hours and then threaten to quit,8217;8217; says 23-year-old Mantri, when asked about her MO. She has just returned from a shoot in Bangkok and has been jetting through back-to-back shoots that began at nine in the morning.

Five models8212;one Indian and four London-based Africans, who will add the 8216;8216;hip hop look8217;8217; to the Ni Main Yaar remix8212;wait for a take in black, faux leather skimps. 8216;8216;I don8217;t go out of my way to show skin,8217;8217; she says. When you call her bluff, she argues that Deepal Shaw 8216;8216;didn8217;t reveal cleavage8217;8217; in the Kabhi Aar Kabhi Paar Baby Doll remix, her biggest hit till date. 8216;8216;The censors are coming down heavily on music videos, and we have to be careful.8217;8217;

Already 10 videos down, including the Mere Piya Gaye Rangoon Playgal mix and the Rangeela remix, her next big gamble is an unmixed vintage original. 8216;8216;The visuals are the only new additions,8217;8217; says Mantri of the Yeh Lo Main Haari Piya video, which was shot in the streets and parks of Bangkok over four days. 8216;8216;If it works, this might just be the next trend,8217;8217; she says.

Yet another hit from the Guru Dutt classic Kabhi Aar Kabhi Paar, this one8217;s retained Geeta Dutt8217;s vocals and features model Genelia, who plays a village belle. 8216;8216;I always watch the original song picturisation, and I don8217;t listen to any other song except the one I8217;m working on.8217;8217;

Next thing you know, Mantri has collapsed after the shoot and we meet her after a five-day stress break. 8216;8216;I just don8217;t chill,8217;8217; says the music video director, who used to make videos with photographer Jagdish Mali until a year ago. So if she8217;s not on the sets, she8217;s holed up at Eye Candy Works, her two-room office in north Mumbai. No TLC for the malady either. 8216;8216;No time for love,8217;8217; she says, 8216;8216;I have to choose between a career or a personal life right now.8217;8217;

	MANTRIC SYSTEM
	8226; Black is passe, peppermint shades are the latest video rage 8226; In her pre-Baby Doll days, Mantri ODed on Pankaj Udhas videos 8226; Leke Pehla Pehla Pyaar with Deepal Shaw, which was shot in a day, is Mantri8217;s fastest video shoot till date 8226; Mantri8217;s fattest budget was for Rangeela8212; Rs 22 lakh

What8217;s the big rush? Mantri8217;s stockpile is just a build-up to the big thing. 8216;8216;Every music video director ultimately wants to make a film,8217;8217; she says of her plans for a masala flick that will unspool after two years.

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But it was fashion photography that set the ball rolling. 8216;8216;Juggy Mali was a family friend, and I always thought I8217;d set up my own studio,8217;8217; says the slim Maharashtrian, 8216;8216;but now I don8217;t think I8217;ll ever get back to photography.8217;8217; In fact, she8217;s just shot her first ad film, for a detergent.

8216;8216;Pink pussycats, Baby Doll, Miss Spicy8212;I think all these names are weird, but somehow they work,8217;8217; she laughs, sounding like a gum-chewing backbencher. She8217;s also sure that we8217;ll hear more of those for the next two years. 8216;8216;In fact, Universal launches a new Baby Doll every six months.8217;8217;