Filmmaker Kiran Rao tells Sunday MiD DAY why shooting at real locations was key to making her debut film, and how she waited two monsoons to film the perfect opening scene. Here, she shares some frames shot by photographer Jyotika Jain that were used in the film, and best illustrate why Mumbai is the biggest character of Dhobi Ghat
Filmmaker Kiran Rao tells Sunday MiD DAY why shooting at real locations was key to making her debut film, and how she waited two monsoons to film the perfect opening scene. Here, she shares some frames shot by photographer Jyotika Jain that were used in the film, and best illustrate why Mumbai is the biggest character of Dhobi Ghat
I find that quite often we don't show those parts of the city that aren't conventionally beautiful, those that are a bit decrepit," says Kiran Rao, when we sit down for a chat at BR Studios, where she's taking a break from a dubbing session for her debut film, Dhobi Ghat. 
A worker atop a construction site at Girgaum. The vantage
point atop the building, Rao felt, portrayed the changing landscape
of Mumbai
Rao is drawn to the intrinsic charm of some parts of South Mumbai, where the action in the film unfolds. "These places have a history that cannot be recreated on a set -- Dhobi Ghat, Mohammed Ali Road and Girgaum. I was keen on finding a location that had its own personality. Very often when you build sets, you start building in history and detail, which if you shoot on actual location, carries the patina of age that you can't create on a set."
One of the main locations of the film is a road named Keshavji Nayak Street in an area called Bhat Bazaar, which Rao has been fascinated with because it symbolises what she calls a "confluence of cultures". "It's really a historic part with old tenements, tiled roofs and chawl structures. From the place we were shooting, we could see how the landscape of Mumbai is changing. You could see the huge towers marching in," she recalls.
A slum on the railway track along Mahim station plays a key protagonist. "The trains give you the pulse of the city -- the track and the trains form an integral part of the soundtrack and visuals," she says.
The challenges of shooting at real locations? "Barring Aamir (Khan), there wasn't much planning involved as far as shielding actors went. People thought we were shooting a small, documentary film," she recalls with
a laugh.
The monsoons, as anybody who loves Mumbai would agree, are special to the city. And Rao would have nothing less than the real thing for the opening. The crew had to wait for two monsoons to get their shot, remembers Rao. "We chased the rain a lot.
False rain is very tough to create. The equipment we have here is fairly medieval and it was a very tough scene. We couldn't get it the first monsoon, we got it in the second."
Using a range of visual textures and various mediums including photography, painting and video, Rao pays a tribute to the city which sheu00a0 made her home 15 years ago.
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