Bipasha heals John's bleeding nose

By: Upala KBR, Mid-Day
Monday, October 22, 2007

Bipasha Basu might be playing a physiotherapist in Vivek Agnihotri"s Goal but that didn"t stop her from playing personal medic to John Abraham when he hurt his nose while playing football.

Says a source, “Bipasha would often sit in on the matches when John and the team would play. One day, when John was shoved by a British footballer on to the ground and smashed his nose, a concerned Bipasha rushed onto the football field and took care of him.

She didn"t just clean his wound like a doctor does but applied a painkiller and salve to soothe the pain. All along, she kept asking, 'John baby, are you okay?" Bipasha can"t bear it when John gets hurt. When he hurt himself in a bike accident last year she would keep calling him and asking if he was okay."

Nosebleed

Talking of the incident, director Vivek Agnihotri says, “We were shooting in extremely rough conditions when this happened. It was a match going on (in the film) at Milwall between the British team Aston and the Indian Southhall United Football Club (with John Abraham, Arshad Warsi, Kushal Punjabi amongst others).

Recently, John had hurt his shin but tough guy that he is, he gave the game his best shot. Now normally, if the Britishers see an Indian guy playing well they get very rough and push and shove. Someone pushed him and he fell on the ground on his face. John cut his nose and there was a lot of bleeding."

Bips helps out

Vivek says that though they had a physiotherapist on the sets, he wasn"t needed. “We had Bipasha Basu doing her job on and off camera," he laughs. “It was actually coincidental. Bipasha plays a physio in the film as well so she had undergone training and learnt what a physiotherapist"s job is. When she saw John"s nose bleeding badly, she rushed onto the sets and cleaned it up. Only when she made sure that John was absolutely fine, did she go off the field."

Biapsha"s TLC of John aside, Vivek is all praise for John. “John is a footballer and biker. We didn"t need to take him to a doctor. Not once did he complain about anything. He would never sit out at any match even when he was hurt."

Training days

Vivek says his Indian team underwent training for three months under footballer Andy Ansa. “John, Arshad and the rest would train under him in the morning every day. Goal has worked as a detox for me. There"s human drama and exciting confrontations happening on the field. Football is a very cinematic sports and the imagery is fantastic. The film drives the point about how Asians living outside India can still triumph a foreign land and how you fight the colour white."

Does racism exist in England? “Oh yes! I have shot two films there and racism is rampant there. They beg for work but in the end always look down at you. I would tell my entire crew not to react but be patient and forgive them." Goal releases on November 23.