The Pool (2007 film)

Saying that this film was the hardest he ever worked on in his life, Smith added that casting for the film was quite a challenge. The crew lost three lead actors due to various reasons. While one of them went to Mumbai on the pretext of buying karate uniforms and never returned,[6] a young girl could not obtain permission for leave from school. The actor originally chosen for the father's role left them for a television series. These unfortunate incidents happened three days prior to commencement of the shoot.[4]

After a casting director, who had previously worked with Ayesha Mohan, sent them her details, she was chosen to play the main actress.[3] Speaking about how they identified Nana Patekar, a veteran Bollywood actor, Smith said:

When you're trying to cast, you will look anywhere and everywhere. At dinner, we would look at the waiters. And one day, this newspaper came (to their hotel room) with a story on Nana (Patekar). And it said that he takes his time between movies and likes to do interesting projects. And Kate thought he looked perfect. We liked his eyes and the way he handled himself in the interview. And he seemed a kindred spirit to what we were trying to do.[6]

Smith was convinced that if Patekar agreed to play the role, the film would get a boost. Actress Mohan helped him approach Anurag Kashyap, who directed her in the Bollywood film Black Friday (2004).[4] Initially, Patekar was not interested to do the film. But Kashyap urged him to take a look at 45 minutes of the film's footage. Upon watching it, Patekar remained quiet for some time and then he said, "this reminds me of what we used to do before we got corrupted."[6] According to Smith, Patekar not just played his character, but also helped out in various scenes while filming.[6]

20-year-old Venkatesh Chavan, who played the role of the young boy fascinated by the pool, originally hailed from Mundargi town in Gadag district of Karnataka. Chavan's parents left for Goa in search of work. While Smith was in the process of casting, Venkatesh was helping his parents to sell scrap. In January 2006, when he was roaming on the streets of Vasco da Gama, Smith met him, introduced himself and asked him to act in his film. Venkatesh took his parents' permission and agreed. His mother and sister were asked to play the role of his mother and sister in the film as well. He received INR 60,000 as compensation for acting in the film. While filming, Chavan thought it was a documentary.[7] Jhangir, who was selected to play the 11-year-old character, worked as an employee in a bar/restaurant.[8]

Neither of the young leads could read, so they couldn't really prepare their scenes in advance. They had to rehearse on the spot and once they got it right, the scene was shot. Another complication was their language. Since neither of them spoke English, it was difficult for Smith to directly convey detailed direction. Hence, with a translator in place, it could easily get translated in the wrong way. Another challenge was that the film was being shot in Hindi, which was not the first language of either of them.[4] In addition, Smith had absolutely no knowledge of Hindi.[1] Effectively, they were being directed in a language they did not understand and having to shoot complex dialogue scenes in a language alien to them.[4]

Poltermann was editing while the filming was in progress. Smith thought that this process had a huge impact on the finished film.[4]