Reptiles in the set of Dhamaal

Monday, August 27, 2007

Rain, poor light, ailing actors and starry tantrums have led to delay or calling off of many shoots. But here's one incident when the threat was from a family of slithery creatures instead.

There was a scene in Ashok Thakeria's Dhamaal, directed by Indra Kumar, in which actors Riteish Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi, Aashish Chowdhury and Javed Jaffrey were required to be atop a broken bridge at Borivalli National Park. Now, as if that wasn't risky enough, there was a family of four-five huge snakes resting under a few boulders right near the bridge. The reptiles were discovered when the camera was rolling, hence, the actors had no clue about the danger. A few lightmen kept guard while the shot was taken undisturbed.

According to a source, the snakes were perilously close to the actors and had they made the slightest movement, the camera would have caught a different drama altogether. But had the actors known beforehand about the snakes they would have created a drama anyways. So all's well that ends well.