17 Years of Salaam-E-Ishq EXCLUSIVE: Shannon Esra talks about her experience of doing a Hindi film and working with Govinda: “He was polite and sweet; but one day, he disappeared in the middle of a scene to slaughter a goat for good luck”

The multi-starrer Salaam-E-Ishq (2007) completed 17 years on January 26. Directed by Nikkhil Advani, the romantic drama, consisting of six tracks, didn’t get a favourable response from critics and audiences alike. However, its songs have a strong recall value. Also, the track that stood out was that of Govinda and foreign actress Shannon Esra. It was sweet, funny and had its moments; as a standalone film, it could have worked well with the moviegoers.

 

17 Years of Salaam-E-Ishq EXCLUSIVE: Shannon Esra talks about her experience of doing a Hindi film and working with Govinda: “He was polite and sweet; but one day, he disappeared in the middle of a scene to slaughter a goat for good luck”

 

Shannon Esra, currently based in South Africa, spoke to Bollywood Hungama exclusively about her experience of doing the film and working with Govinda, who’s known for his dance and comic talent.

 

Regarding the actor, Shannon Esra revealed, “The makers, while explaining who Govinda is to me, remarked ‘He’s the John Travolta of Bollywood’! That did encapsulate him really well for me. This was a time when he had started getting involved in politics. So, Salaam-E-Ishq was like a return to cinema for him. For the most part, he was incredibly charming and very sweet. But one day, he disappeared in the middle of a scene. He went to a village and he slaughtered a goat for good luck! He came back and he was covered in blood! I asked him ‘What happened’. He matter-of-factly said, ‘I just slaughtered a goat for the villagers for good luck’. I was like ‘What are you talking about?’ (laughs)! He was like ‘This South African girl has no idea’. So, in a way, it was wonderful to learn about cultures and rituals.”

 

Shannon continued, “Overall, he was lovely and polite and we got along very well. I learnt a lot from everybody on the sets. I remember I was very fond of the DOP Piyush Shah. He taught me a hell of a lot.”

 

When remarked that Govinda is known to be superstitious, Shannon Esra replied, “The day we were shooting at the Taj Mahal in Agra, we had a permit that was only for 12 hours for that day. I was in make-up from 4:30 am and we were supposed to roll at 8 am. You know that you’ll have to wait a bit more for lighting and other stuff. But when it was 10 am, I could see that no activity was happening. Across the river, I saw our director (Nikkhil Advani) pacing up and down and freaking out. I asked the third AD, Rukhshida David, why we weren't shooting. She told me, ‘Govinda won’t step out of his vanity van’. I asked, ‘Why? Did he hurt himself?’. She answered, ‘The constellations are such that it would be bad luck for him to work today’! I reasoned that we could shoot the said scene only that day.”

 

Shannon decided to not take things lying down, “I barged into his trailer and told him, ‘Get on the set! We are filming. I want to go home’! He just looked at me and said ‘You are very funny’! I thundered, ‘I am not being funny. I am serious. Get on the set’! He started to laugh and said, ‘You are so charming!’”

 

And that’s not all. Shannon said, “I had to go through his guru who told me, ‘He’s not going (to shoot). It’s bad luck’. I told him, ‘It’s going to be bad luck if he doesn’t go on the sets’! I pleaded and begged. But it didn’t work.”

 

Things soon got better. Shannon Esra stated, “The next day, he popped out of the van and said, ‘Let’s shoot’! Nikkhil had tears of happiness. We then managed to shoot the sequence.”

 

Also Read: 17 Years of Salaam-E-Ishq EXCLUSIVE: Shannon Esra talks about her experience of doing a Hindi film and shooting a song-and-dance sequence; opens up on meeting Salman Khan: “He had a BEAUTIFUL physique; We were talking about hunting in South Africa and other random stuff”

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