another mumbai housing Q

hi,
another quick question.... I have found out about the option of "service apartments" in mumbai. This would be ideal for me as I wouldn't have to sign an 11 month lease. It would remove the hassle of setting things up (furninshings, etc). Does anyone know of low-price service apartments. The ones I found on the internet so far seem to be pitched at business people. I'm coming to mumbai as a self-financed (so far) independent documentary filmmaker. I don't have a corporation that will pay for my place. Is there such a thing as low-budget options? I also want the privacy of staying in my own place as I will be using it as a place to edit my film. any suggestions would be great.

There is no such thing as low-budget apartments in Mumbai. You may be surprised to know that rents in Mumbai are higher than those in Toronto. If you want "cheap" apartments you will have to go to the outskirts of Mumbai like Vashi, Panvel, Thane. You did not mention where exactly in Mumbai you would like a place to stay.

In terms of location, I'm not too fixed on a particular location. I'd like to be as central as possible on a budget. I like doing cultural things like films/music/lectures, so I don't want to spend all my time on trains commuting. My "inital" budget for a place to live was about 15000Rs/month. I might have to adjust this!! The only other experience I have with india was living in Hyderabad, AP which was MUCH cheaper. I estimated my budget for mumbai from about doubling my hyderabad rent.

You will not get an apartment in the central part of Mumbai for less than Rs 30,000. What kind of documentary are you making?

Gulp! 30000! That's more than I've paid for a place in Canada. It's also more japan. I have been in Osaka, Japan filming my doc for the past year. I was working through my second degree in Canada and decided to take a long break and work on a doc. so i self financed a camera and came to japan to live for 1-2 years. I have worked enough teaching English (yuck) to get an editing system while in Japan and will soon be in India. I'm filming about my time (about 2 years) living in Hyderabad a few years ago. I'll also be filming contemporary stuff - which is why I'm planning to be in Bombay for 6-7 months. I have some things from japan that will mix in. I'm making the film in a doc-style where I just shoot anything and then form the film later when i edit it. I'm starting to edit bits about Japan now. I was in touch with the National Film Board (NFB) before I left and got some equipment support and was told to contact them when I return to Canada for assistance.

What kind of equipment are you using for shooting?

Could you not complete your task staying in some other city other than Mumbai?

I'm shooting with a Canon GL2 3CCD mini DV camera and some extra microphones. It's nice quality but still very portable. I just bought a apple G4 powerbook computer with editing software so I'm my own production unit. Nice when you're a low budget filmmaker.

I'm interested in meeting artists and filmmakers so I want to live in a film centre. I'm big on experiencing other cultural things that you don't get in such quantity as other cities. I'm saving up as much as I can while in Japan so that I can live in India as long as possible without having a job. This would allow me the most time to experience/film bombay and it's people. I'd rather go to bombay and face the possibility of having to get some sort of job than stay longer in a smaller city. bombay seems to have masochistic elements to it

That's exactly the same equipment that a close friend of mine is using! He is an amateur film maker as well and graduated from the Vancouver Film School. We were planning on shooting a mockumentary in Goa earlier this year but in the end we decided against it.

Are you using Final Cut Pro or Avid XPress Pro?

I've got FCP ver 5. It's pretty nice. A huge learning curve. I'd used it before, but for basic things and I never had proper instruction. I've got a BIG book now.... What were you going to shoot for your moc doc? I recently saw moc doc "It's all gone pete tong" by Canadian director Michael Dowse ("Fubar"). It was pretty funny.

The topic was about people coming to Goa looking for that elusive and mystical "cool party" which never seems to take place.

For around 18 K /mth you can get a small paying guest types in Mahim which is quite near to Bandra [where all the actors hang around...]

For the same 18K a month you can get a small apartment in Andheri.

See the newspaper Mid-day classifieds in Mumbai....

You can also get a decent Hotel room in Colaba Area for 500 a day [15k/mth].... its centrally located... but not an apartment.

If your willing to commute, you can get an apartment in Vashi for 5000 to 8000 per month.

thanks Avidtrekker. I saw some places on internet classifieds. How is West Bandra as a place to live. Also, if you know, how is Andheri West (near Bhavans college)?

I think that is an excellent idea for a mockumentary! I saw a similar type thing of the party scene in Ko Pha-Ngnan in Thailand, where big young crowds flock to for the full moon parties (at least they used to when I was there in 2001). It was a short documentary made in Hat Rin. Quite entertaining!

I am a bit of film/edit enthusiast myself.
I am hoping to get back into that sort of thing once I return to India.

West Bandra is excellent... but will be more expensive.... or else it will be some pokey hole. [for 15 k]

Andheri W near Bhavan's College is OK and if the building overlooks the College Campus itself, its very very green with a small lake to boot!