Hunterwali Aarti gets cracking

Filmmaker Sanjay Gupta and director Apoorva Lakhia decided to play a prank on their stars, Viveik Oberoi, Tusshar Kapoor, Shabbir Ahluwalia, Rohit Roy, Aarti Chabria and Aditya Lakhia, during the shooting of Shootout At Lokhandwala at Filmistan Studios.

Says Lakhia, "Sanjay (Gupta) and I decided to play a prank on all these guys in the morning. We were to shoot a song Teri Dhun sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and choreographed by Rajeev Goswami that day and we thought, 'why not have some fun?' Before beginning the shoot for the song, we told everyone except the cast about the prank."

Whipping boys

Adds Gupta, "We told Aarti Chabria to stand on a chair with a whip in her hands. And every time she cracked the whip and it touched one of the boys, he would have to fall on the ground and writhe like a snake! And they all did that very sincerely; not knowing the scene would never make it to the film. It was sight to see all these boys writhing on the floor." Till the time when the unit couldn't keep a straight face any longer and cracked up laughing.

Just a prank

Says Tusshar, "We were shooting very normally, then suddenly Gups (Gupta) made Aarti stand on a height with us all surrounding her and making her whip us. Each time she whipped one of us, we would have to tremble, fall down crawling and writhing on the floor! And then they told us it's just for making of a prank. The song called Mein teri dhun mein, the song was like rocking scene when Gups suddenly comes and tells us 'we were making an ass of you all!' Imagine!"

Though Rohit, Shabbir and Viveik maintain the 'we knew all along that it was a prank" Gupta and Lakhia maintain they were in the dark. There is good-humoured ribbing all around. Shabbir has the last word, "The song is too cool man! We have all requested Gups and Apu to keep it in the film and not dispense with it. We had a blast shooting for it and we will not do away with it. It has to be kept now!"

About Shootout At Lokhandwala

Produced by Whitefeather Films, Shootout At Lokhandwala, is a true life story that had taken place in 1991, in the bustling Lokhandwala Complex where five criminals had been gunned down along with their accomplices.

They were counting 70 lakhs in Flat no. 32 B, when 286 policemen, headed by ACP Khan, took strategic positions around their building. A gunfire ensued and the entire nation witnessed the most talked about daylight encounter lasting six hours. Viveik and Tusshar play gangsters Maya Dolas and Dilip Buwa respectively. Dolas and Buwa made extortion the buzzword in the early 90s.