Apoorva Lakhia's Shootout at Lokhandwala diary 
By IndiaFM News Bureau, May 21, 2007 - 09:27 IST
Jailed assistant directors, bleeding actors and bad weather days. Here are Apoorva Lakhia's candid recollections of directing Shootout at Lokhandwala
Day 1. Tuesday, Aug 01, 2006
Ext. Wadhwani's Building: Mehboob Studio/ Day
First day of the shoot. What have I gotten myself into? Did not get a minute of sleep, kept going over the shot breakdowns. A lot of work for the first day; several actors I have never worked with. My stunt team is new. It's going to rock.
Tusshar, Shabir, Addi and Rohit are on set. Tusshar made me run around for two months - he did not want to do the film, as he would not be able to pull it off. This is his test. The call sheet said: Shoot call, 9 am. We are ready with two cameras. The boys walk into the office with their guns before they go blasting.
Roll camera, action! I hear the coconut break just behind me - BANG! Shocked, I jump out of my chair. CUT! They weren't supposed to fire as yet. Everyone looks at me. 9:05 am, the first shot is canned. No turning back now.
Day 2 and 3.
Wednesday and Thursday, Aug 2 and 3
Int. Madh Island Hotel/Day
The big guys are here. First day with Anna (Sunil Shetty), Arbaaz and Tusshar. Another action scene. Tusshar seems really nervous. He has not done an action or a love-making scene in a few years. He couldn't decide what was worse - fighting with Sunil or making love to Aarti. He has quickly become a hot favourite with Assistant Directors (ADs), especially the girls (10 in all). The girls had a gift-wrapped packet for him. When Tusshar opened it, he was embarrassed to find an abdominal guard with a note that read, "Go cowboy, this is to keep it in check." The much-publicised love-making scene was over and we moved on.
After a few rehearsals, Tusshar was a little thanda. I took him aside and asked him to get angry. Think of bad things, people he hates. We tried the shot again, no change. I guess he does not think of bad things or hates anyone. Then I asked him to abuse loudly. Sunil was watching me. When I returned after a cup of tea, I saw the cutest sight. Tusshar was was muttering abuses to himself. Sunil walked up to him, made him repeat a few choice Hindi abuses. Every time he abused, he would apologise to the female crew. We got him angry and the fight began.
Day 7. Tuesday, Aug 8
Ext. Building Under Construction/ Day
It's the first day with Vivek. I've heard all the stories, the warnings. Everyone's guard is up. Vivek and Tusshar have done the maximum home work, so much so that at one point I refused to take their calls. Vivek is the last person to walk onto the set. The mind games have begun. Tusshar, Shabbir, Aditya, Rohit and Vivek sit all day and their stories get bigger and wilder with each passing minute.
Vivek is fantastic and the boys have begun bonding. I'm praying that they get along for the next few weeks. Vivek has raised the level with his acting and it is rubbing off on the others. The competition is healthy - from who arrives first on set, who can do their lines without fluffing them. I love that, makes my job easier. We wrap at 4:30 pm due to bad light. Have got half the scene, puts us behind schedule by a day. It's a bummer but the time the boys spent together when we were not shooting was priceless.
Day 17 and 18. Aug 21 and 22
Ext. Lokhandwala market, Versova village
We are supposed to shoot a chase sequence with Sunil and Arbaaz. But the crowd will not let us through. Every frame was packed with thousands of people looking into the camera. We asked the actors to get back into their vans and walked around the market. We selected places where the cameras would be placed without anyone knowing. One camera was placed looking in the opposite direction, the timing for all this had to be perfect and the ADs did a fantastic job. On action, the body doubles ran in the opposite direction blasting guns. The crowd moved away. At that very moment, Sunil and Arbaaz got out of a car and ran down the Lokhandwala market chasing Ravi Gosai. It was tough as they had to run over 250 metres at full speed, holding guns and shouting dialogues. It was fantastic and the best way to shoot guerilla films. I had no idea what the camera captured as we had to split to the next location. At the end of the market, the actors got into another car and we moved to Verova village to carry on the chase.
In the evening, the cops took our cameras away and Laxmi, one of the ADs, was taken into the Versova lockup with the two cameras. We were forced to wrap. At the Versova police station, we took photos of Laxmi and the camera crew behind bars. Her face was worth one thousand abuses. It's sad that it is impossible to shoot a film on location in a city with such a big film industry. No wonder most film crews fly overseas to shoot, where you have full support of the city and the police. Can't something be done about this?
Day 38. Tuesday, Oct 31
Int. Dingra's chambers
Sunil is great to have on set. He is always up to no good.
He plants a cell phone next to Diya. Amitji prepares to give his final summation. Besides the actors, there are 200 extras, camera crews and lawyers. The place is cramped. Everyone is asked to put off their phones. Amitji is ready to roll and the silence deafening. It's a three page dialogue, four cameras are in position. We are shooting both ways so it's a bit of a nightmare for my director of photography. Everyone has to act and react at the same time as the cameras capture them all. Roll camera, action!
Amitji starts his dialogue. The silence is broken with the cell phone ringing. The sound is thunderous and everyone looks toward Diya. The phone is presumably hers. I have never seen an expression of fear like that on Diya's face. I shout from the monitor: Diya, can you please switch off your phone. Diya is speechless. All eyes are on her till Amitji looks at her and starts laughing. It was good fun and Diya took it in her stride.
Day 35. Saturday, Oct 28, 2006
Ext. Dhaisar Check Nakka/Day
The entire crew was excited from last night as we were going to shoot with Abhishek Bachchan today. Abhishek never agrees to anything the first time. If you insist, his standard remark is, "I've done more films than everyone here, so shut up." The trick is to ignore him for five minutes and he returns like a baby, ready to shoot. From tripping the ADs to doing exactly the opposite of what he is supposed to do in every first take, Abhishek was up to no good. He was in great spirits and did all the stunts himself. The only problem was his long hair which we had to keep hiding under the police hat; the hair must have made us take at least 20 extra shots.
Day 43. Friday, Jan 19, 2007
Int. Khans House/ Day
We are back after a very long break. Sanjay Dutt had to stop shooting due to his court case. We have shot for 40 days in a period of five months. The crew is back - some of the faces look different as people have moved on to newer and better things. Sanjay has lost weight, almost five kilos due to the pressure of the case, and it shows. He is reserved and looks tired. But he is totally hassle-free and a favourite with the crew. Neha Dhupia and he have a good chemistry. The first thing she did was to go up to him and take a photograph. She is a fan, like all of us. We all wished that his nightmare would be over soon.
Day 54. Friday, Feb 9
Int. Swati Building/ Day
The set looks mind-blowing. Sunil has done a fantastic job. The entire Kalia Maidan has been converted into the Swati Building complex. The climax has begun. Tusshar and Sunil are doing an action sequence in the apartment. Tusshar is a lot more confident now. After a few takes, he tells Anna to make it more realistic and hit him a little harder. Take five, action and BANG! Anna lands a punch. Tusshar gets his timing wrong. When we cut, Tusshar has blood dripping down his face from a cut on his forehead. A doctor is called and he needs nine stitches. I had to get the sequence on the same day, so I refused to let him go home. The entire crew got onto Anna's case. They ragged him all day for beating up a boy half his age and size.
After Tusshar got back on set, Sunil had to smash a TV on his head. Though it had plexi-glass, it was still dangerous, as the stitches were new, and we got it in two takes. Tusshar's nightmare was not over. He then had to be pulled down three flights of stairs by his feet, as his head hit the steps on the way down. By the end of the day, it was hard to differentiate real blood from reel blood. Tusshar has something to remember Shootout from, his nine stitches…
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Apoorva Lakhia clears facts about Shootout at Lokhandwala
