On the sets of
Mujhse Shaadi Karoge
The helipad at Film City, Goregaon,
Bombay has been converted into a massive set of an authentic township adjoining
a Goa-Portugal square. The set has been constructed for Sajid Nadiadwala's
Mujhse Shaadi Karogi, which stars Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar & Priyanka
Chopra.
Constructed at an exorbitant cost of Rs 3.5 crores by art director Sharmishta
Roy, the 19-century exotica set has replicas of vintage Goan villas, tower house
& churches. A major portion of this Bollywood film (two songs, major action
sequences and talkie portions) will be shot on this set under the direction of
David Dhawan.
When our team entered the sets, we found Salman Khan chasing a dog (Tommy) to
win Priyanka Chopra’s heart. Priyanka plays Rani, a simple girl with simple
aspirations who wants to make it big as a designer. Akshay plays Sunny who loves
to create misunderstandings between people (read Salman and Priyanka)
Mujhse Shaadi Karogi is a love triangle based in Goa, where two roommates
(Salman & Akshay) fall in love with their neighbour’s daughter (Priyanka) and
both propose marriage.
A special effects team from Australia will be coming to India to work on special
effects like timeslide, burlybrawls and multiplications, some of which were used
in The Matrix.
The movie is expected to be complete by March 2004 and will be released in June
2004.
Salman Khan is chasing a dog to win Priyanka Chopra’s
heart in Film City!
No, it’s not real life but reel life. It’s the shooting of Sajid Nadiadwala’s
Mujhse Shaadi Karoge directed by David Dhawan and starring Akshay Kumar, Salman
Khan and Priyanka Chopra.
Producer Sajid Nadiadwala says about his film, “I am a romantic and David is
comic. Thus Mujhse Shaadi Karoge is a romantic comedy.” The film is special for
him because, “Two of my close friends are coming together for the first time.
One is a school friend (Kumar) and the other is a business friend (Khan). These
guys have been in the industry for 12 years and they have never worked together
so getting them together was great.”
Dhawan is having a ball making such light, breezy entertainers because, “As a
maker you should enjoy what you are doing. Manmohan Desai used to make only
entertaining films.”
On his hero Salman he says, “This is my fifth film with Salman. We share an
amazing professional relationship. He is a very good actor and almost like a
child.” According to Dhawan, “Akshay Kumar has improved in leaps and bounds in
every way from Mr and Mrs Khiladi to now. He is a great guy, he picks up so
fast.”
Leading lady Chopra plays Rani, who is “a simple girl with simple aspirations
living in Goa and wants to make it big as a designer. It’s a situational
comedy,” Chopra says.
She describes the scene they are shooting today. “I have a dog called Tommy and
my father is very attached to him. Salman brings a fake dog and gives it to him
to win my affection and I say what a good guy he is.
This makes him one up on Akshay who seethes in frustration.”
Kumar says it in simpler terms. “It’s a love triangle based in Goa, where two
roommates fall in love with their neighbour’s daughter and both ask her mujhse
shaadi karoge? I play Sunny who loves to create misunderstandings between
people.”
Salman plays a Baywatch-like lifeguard’s role in the film. Says Khan, “My
character feels angry at every wrong thing done.” He continues, “For the first
time David has tried to convey some message to his audience.
His message is that when your time is bad no matter what you do, things will
always go wrong and secondly you cannot keep a talented man down for long.”
Set appeal
• The film will also have special effects like
timeslide, burlybrawls and multiplications, some of which were used in The
Matrix. A special effects team from Australia is coming down for that.
• The set resembles Goa. Apparently, number of planks used to construct the sets
was over 40,000. So many planks were used in this shoot, that at one point
producers of three different films had to cancel their shoots because they
couldn’t get enough planks.
Nadiadwala admits, “There was shortage of planks all over because we used so
many planks because of the length and height of the sets.
Usually a set may have more or less than this amount. But since we have
constructed buildings having heights of two or three floors we have had to use
lots of planks.
We could have shot in Goa if we needed to shoot for just four or five days. But
since it’s was more than that we had to construct the set here. The approximate
set amount at ground level has cost us about Rs 3 crore.”
Salman Fights 100 Akshay Kumars
Producer Sajid
Nadiawala wants something hatke.
None of the usual dishum-dishum between two heroes in his latest film, Mujhse
Shaadi Karogi.
So, you have Salman Khan fighting 100 Akshay Kumars for heroine Priyanka Chopra!
Nadiawala explains, "I bought the same camera used in Keanu Reaves' Matrix
series [where Keanu fights 100 Agent Smiths], and we will create 100 Akshays
fighting Salman. It will be one of the unique
scenes in our film. The technical term of this motion camera will be understood
only by those who know photography. It helps in the multiplication of images."
Nadiadwala hopes Indian audiences will love this technology. "The camera costs
Rs 5 crore [Rs 50 million]. I imported it specially from Hollywood for this
film," he says.
Director David Dhawan gets ready for the shot. When he yells 'action', Akshay
Kumar steps forward, along with two look-alikes. Replete with artificial nose
and padded jaws, it is hard to tell the difference between Akshay and his
look-alikes.
Salman takes his position against the three Akshays after taking his shirt off
and displaying his muscles. After the shot, he struts around shirtless with
light blue jeans and cowboy shoes. A earring
in his navel grabs attention.
When asked about three Akshays on the sets, Dhawan replies, "Watch the film and
you will see what wonders we are doing with it. I cannot reveal anything more
because it will lead to revealing the
story."
Nadiadwala plans to spend Rs 22 crore [Rs 220 million] on the film. After its
Mumbai stint, the unit will fly to Mauritius and Italy to shoot 50 per cent of
the film.
In Mumbai, the shooting venue is atop a hillock in Film City. Called Helipad,
the place is windy, green and very silent. There are no buildings around.
Some children roller skate and cycle for the shot. A huge library has the
numbers 1850 painted on it. A church, some restaurants and pubs constitute the
rest of the sets.
Nadiadwala claims he had wanted to shoot in Goa, but couldn't go there. So he
tried to recreate Goa in Mumbai's Film City.
Akshay states that he was keen to learn more about the technology in Mujhse
Shaadi Karogi. "I know there were some scenes in Matrix which took 90 days to
shoot. It is interesting to know about this
technology. But it will take a long time for such technologies to come to
India."
Salman was forthcoming. "I have only understood what they are doing in the
shots," he says. "I don't want to get into the details of the camera and
technicalities. It is best that the people who handle the
camera do their job well so that the audience will love the film on screen."
Mujhse Shaadi Karogi is likely to release in May 2004.
Salman Khan has a cup of coffee during a break from shooting an action scene in
his forthcoming movie Mujhse Shaadi Karogi? being shot at Film City in
Goregaon, Mumbai.
The movie directed by David Dhawan and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala stars Salman
Khan, Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra.
Akshay Kumar discusses a scene with producer Sajid Nadiadwala on the sets of Mujhse Shaadi Karogi in Mumbai's Film City.
One of the film's USP is the use of a motion control camera for the first time in Indian cinema. The camera gives a multiplicity effect.
Remember Neo battling countless Agent Smiths in Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions?
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