FROM THE SHOPS
AT LINCOLN CENTER

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TOP: Donald Sutherland on set in India. BOTTOM: Baron, Larson and Lakshmi Manchu gather
around a monitor.

contemporary Indian pop. “The final
song joins everyone’s voices togeth-
er,” he says, “completing the musical
and the narrative journey.”
When discussing the film with the
husband-and-wife team, the making
of Basmati Blues becomes as much a
personal venture as the film itself.
“Working in a foreign country
is intense,” Caulfield says. “I wish
everyone could experience it. India is
so different, but you connect to the
people and it’s all about heart and
their incredible warmth.”
She admits there were also obsta-
cles to filming in a foreign country.
“You plan every day, create an envi-
ronment so people can show up and
shoot, and then a monsoon hits,
and you have to evacuate the crew,”
Caulfield says of the reason for halt-
ing filming in 2013. Or there’s a strike
of rickshaw drivers in the market
where they were scheduled to shoot.
Or they planned for a lush rice field
and when they arrived, she says, “it’s
the middle of a dry season and we
have to get hundreds of plants from
other areas and plant them by hand.”
Other challenges turned into
powerful experiences. Much of the
200-person crew was from India, but
many were also from Greece, Spain
and Italy, Baron says. Nine different
languages were spoken on the set.
“Everybody is influencing everybody,
creating an open atmosphere,” he

says.
Before shooting the film, Baron
and Caulfield visited India several
times, sometimes staying with fami-
lies where the film was to be shot.
They were hosted by Indian actor
and producer of the film Lakshmi
Manchu (Desperate Housewives).
“It was a profound experience, how
people let us in,” Caulfield says.
Similar to the Jewish relationship
with food, Caulfield and Baron found
that food in India connected them
to the people, their history and their
culture.
Caulfield hopes their film cap-
tures that richness. “Basmati Blues is
about going to the theater for a joy-
ful experience for the whole family,”
she says. “It’s about people reaching
across cultures and making a better
place together.”
Up next? “We’ve begun work on
a couple projects,” Baron says. “Jeff,
Monique and I are working on a tele-
vision show about a couple of FBI
agents who do something not seen
before.”
He and Dorchen, Baron adds,
are also tackling a new film they’re
writing, to be directed by Baron,
about an American spy forced to
deal with his messy personal life and
latent family issues. The film takes
place in Long Island, London and —
Mongolia. Pack your bags! •

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Lincoln Shopping Center

GREENFIELD and 10½ MILE

jn

February 22 • 2018

49

