Locations in Europe: Italy and Czech Republic
Storyline
Star(s): Ranbir Kapoor, Nargis Fakhri, Piyush Mishra, Aditi Rao Hydari
Songs/Dance: Several songs of the film were shot in Prague and the outskirts of Prague. Jordan’s performance in the opening and climax sequences was shot in Verona, Italy.
Indian/ International Crew: Prague. The filming in Prague was made possible through the Czech Film Commission and the incentives that were provided to Executive Producer, Jan Kallista—Line Producer, Punk Film. The Indian crew of 70 people was complemented by 60 Czech film professionals and scores of other service providers. Up to 500 extras were employed for group scenes, one being a musical performance at Prague’s Státní opera.
Language: Hindi
Line Producers: Khawar Jamsheed, Jan Kallista, Sandeep Leyzell, Mohit Rastogi, Giulia Salvadori, Scrix Productions (Italy)
Director/Producer: Imtiaz Ali/Eros International, Sri Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd.
Film Location Analysis
By Shikha Jhingan
The film opens in Verona, where the whole town seems to be in a celebratory mood, awaiting a rock concert by Jordan at the Arena, a Roman amphitheatre with a round façade. This opening section deploys a smaller screen, a rough and ready video or mobile phone footage that shows the town lined with Jordan’s posters and people crowding around to buy merchandise like t-shirts with Jordan’s name on them. Fans and rock enthusiasts are gathered around the arena, celebrating, cheering, and playing music. We move in to see the performance arena, where musicians are checking sound, doing back projection, and rehearsing their gear. (According to Imtiaz Ali, while they were shooting the sequence, local people thought that there was a rock star who was going to perform in their town and started asking for tickets and merchandise related to Jordan.)
The camera then pulls out to show us a panoramic view of the city with the amphitheatre in the middle. We now cut to the film as the frame gets enlarged and we see a high-resolution image. The cinematic panoramic view now creates a vista of the beautiful city. But this is cut short as we are taken to another location in the city, with the camera zooming into a group of men involved in a brawl. Jordan’s bouncers get into a fist fight as he tries to escape from their clutches. Jordan is violent and, in the melee, gets knocked on his face but manages to flee. Next, we see Jordan walking in the city and getting into a public bus. A co-passenger is shocked to see the musical star with blood on his face; Jordan’s face is on all the big hoardings in the city. As the soundtrack builds in tempo, we see him enter the amphitheatre, put on his jacket and hold the guitar, and turn towards the crowd cheering for him.
The second location in Europe in the film was Prague. Heer gets married to an Indian diplomat who is posted in Prague. The music company that represents Jordan plans a trip to Prague to promote their artists. Jordan pleads with Dhingra (Piyush Mishra), the owner of the company, to send him to Prague. The sequence in Prague opens with Heer, who is shown shopping with her sister-in-law and then leaves for an appointment with her psychiatrist. This is where she runs into Jordan, who asks her to come out with him. The next sequence shows the two of them on a bike moving through the city. The camera provides a view of the city through the kinetic and exhilarating experiences of the two lovers. Both meet at a cafe near Staroměstská radnice or the old town hall of Prague.
Unlike typical touristic imaginations of Prague, Imtiaz Ali uses space to present the city’s dark beauty associated with its ancient architecture, Gothic-style facades, and stories of witchcraft. For Ali, this was an ideal location for the two characters to explore their hidden and passionate relationship. Further, Rockstar also engages with Prague as a place known for its music and recording industries. An interesting sequence in the film becomes the prelude to the ‘Hawa Hawa’ song. We see Jordan walking on a narrow lane, between two walls near the Prague Castle. The sound of music pushes him to move towards the Maltézské Náměstí (The Maltese Square) in the lesser town of Prague, located on the left (west) bank of the river Vltava, where a group of gypsies are playing music. Jordan is intrigued by the unusual rhythm patterns. This musical section leads up to ‘Hawa Hawa,' where we see Jordan collaborating with the Gipsy musicians. This collaboration shown on screen involved several musicians from the Czech Republic and France who were brought in to perform. According to Imtiaz Ali, the song was based on one of the legends of Sleepy Haunsa, which describes the story of a queen who slips out at night to party in the depths of hell. The song becomes a metaphor for Heer’s transgressions with Jordan, something that changes the course of their lives.
In the ‘Hawa Hawa’ song, the director and his crew spent several days in Prague and other parts of the Czech Republic to absorb the folk stories and legends of the place and then found a way to weave them into the narrative. The film works hard to capture the architecture, lifestyle, music, and art of Prague as a Slavic city and an important centre for the integration of Eastern Europe’s musical cultures. The choreographers worked with local dancers and musicians to see how they moved to this kind of music. Even though the song (‘Hawa Hawa’) had already been recorded, Rahman incorporated the voices, instruments, and percussion sections of the Gipsy musicians that were recorded on location to produce a layered soundtrack. In the next section of the song, we move to Charles Bridge where the dancers and musicians are seen performing just below the Statue of Saint Madonna, Dominic and Thomas Aquinas. Through the song we see the performances at several locations like the Sychrov Castle in the Leberec region of the Czech Republic and the Vtba Gardens of Prague, where Heer joins the group.
The second interlude takes us to a strip bar, where Heer and Jordan rekindle their romance by immersing themselves in the underbelly of the city. In the final section, we seem to get deeper into the story of the queen, who is being spied upon by the king. The theatrical enactments of the story performed in costumes by local actors and puppeteers create a backdrop while we see the happy faces of dancers, acrobats, and the protagonists performing for the camera.
In another sequence, the two lovers escape to the countryside on a motorcycle just before they begin an intimate relationship with each other. This sequence was shot in a beautiful pastoral location with the Karlstejn Castle in the Central Bohemia region framing the background. Another prominent location is the State Opera of Prague where Jordan performs for a packed audience.
‘Meri Bebasi ka Bayan,’ the second song shot in Prague, was based on a collaboration with Alma Ferovic, a Bosnian singer who is shown recording and performing with Jordan in the film. This soulful song foregrounds the darker mood of the city as the two lovers have their passionate encounters at night, burdened by guilt and an obsessive desire. In one sequence, we see Heer waking up in the morning in Jordan’s room in a state of panic. Collecting her belongings, she runs out with Jordan following her. With Alma’s voice on the soundtrack, we see Heer running across Charles Bridge, one of the city's most iconic sites with baroque statues. We see the view of the skyline from the bridge, changing its hue as dawn breaks. The bridge is known to connect the city’s old town with the castle. The camera provides an aerial view of the city’s ancient architecture, making the two figures diminutive and vulnerable, trapped in an interstitial space between the old and the new, the modern and the pre-modern.
Additional Information & Links
The film was shot in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and Verona in Italy apart from locations in India. Both locations were used to explore Jordan’s musical journey and as sites for his diegetic performance as a Rockstar.
https://filmcommission.cz/en/rockstar-anglicky/
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