Rahul Dholakia remembers shooting Lamhaa in curfew-hit Kashmir after both Karisma Kapoor and Deepika Padukone declined the opportunity. Bipasha Basu stepped in to take on the challenging role.
Lamhaa is Rahul Dholakia’s action thriller which follows the life of an Indian Army undercover officer who was sent to locate the person behind extremist attacks in Kashmir. While the movie has some bone-chilling visuals from the valley, it was actually pretty difficult to shoot there because of the curfew. But after actors like Karisma Kapoor and Deepika Padukone refused to play the part, Bipasha Basu led the movie and shot in the curfew.
The filmmaker was in an interaction with Mashable India when he recalled the horrors of making the movie and the challenges that came with shooting in Kashmir. Rahul Dholakia stated that he had to trick Bipasha Basu into filming during a curfew after Karisma Kapoor and Deepika Padukone opted out from shooting in the troubled Kashmir valley. He recalled being held hostage on the first day of the shoot along with 10,000 people, for about 4-4.5 hours soon after which, the Alone actress left the shoot.
But eventually, she returned to finish what she had started. He stated, “I shot in curfew with Bipasha and she got really pissed with me” because they didn’t inform her about the curfew. At that point, Basu was happy and was in awe of beautiful Kashmir. But later when she got to know there was a curfew, she called him and said, “How dare you make me shoot during curfew?” During the same chat, he divulged that since he wanted to shoot in the valley, no one was coming on board with him. “Karisma had just had kids and wanted to be a part of the film but refused to shoot in Kashmir. Deepika Padukone gave me the same answer,” Rahul revealed.
Recalling what happened when he was held hostage, the Parzania maker stated that he was locked in a room with 400 others and told, ‘You are against Kashmir.’ But thankfully, after hours, they were left because someone recognized him as the guy who made the National Film Award-winning film. Rahul Dholakia is also credited for movies like Kehtaa Hai Dil Baar Baar, Mumbai Cutting, Shah Rukh Khan, and Mahira Khan’s Raees, among others.
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