BY ROBBY GREWAL
Creative Producer, Red Ice Films
The idea of speed has always attracted me. The adrenalin rush that I get from high speed is truly incomparable to anything else that I have ever felt. Being a speed junkie, I religiously followed Michael Schumacher and secretly wished to drive like him at least once in my life. I was really fortunate to get such an opportunity when I visited Monte Carlo on one of our shoots.
It was during this trip that I drove on the street circuit of the Monaco Formula 1 race. The icing on the cake was the fact that I was actually driving a Ferrari Spider. ‘A Ferrari! Oh boy, this was as close to feeling like Schumacher as it gets’. The feel of the 4.5 litre V8 engine just drowned everything else around me. The other drivers racing in their speed machines, my co-driver’s instructions, the crowd cheering... everything. It was as if the world had ceased to exist around me. All I could feel was the throbbing of the engine and the wind gushing over me. The smell of burning rubber, the tar, the smoke was just intoxicating.
Even now when I think about it, I can feel the goose bumps, the excitement, the rush that I got that day. I still wonder what it was. Was it that I had fulfilled my lifelong dream of emulating my idol? Or was it just the passion that I have for speed coming to the fore? Maybe it was just the excitement of being on the Monaco street circuit, the crowds and the atmosphere. Or maybe it was all of them combined.
As an Economics graduate, people often ask me what made me gravitate towards a career in film-making. Earlier, I used to brush it off saying that it was all by accident. But I know that the feel I get when I am behind the camera is comparable to the rush of speed that I experienced at Monaco. To be in control of the complete creative process. To create something beautiful out of an idea. To make dreams come alive on the screen. It is truly a heady and wonderful feeling.
Today, as my years in film-making keep ticking by, I realize that the passion for the subject has not diminished at all. The same excitement runs through my veins every time I get behind the camera. Every time I work on a film, it is the same excitement that I got in the Ferrari. That is why I know that my evolution as a film-maker is not an accident. My passion for the subject will always keep me striving for more and more. And my passion for speed will always keep me wanting to go back and make that drive again.
Feedback: robby@redicefilms.com
