Mira Nair speaks about Amelia plane hijack

Washington (ANI): Mira Nair has spoken about the trouble she and her team had to go through when the aircraft used in her 2009 biopic Amelia was hi-jacked en-route to the South African film shoot. The acclaimed director revealed she was bent on using one of the actual Lockheed Elektras the famous aviator Amelia Earhart flew.

But little did the filmmaker know what she would be going through to get the plane from the south of France to the location in Cape Town. "We located this Elektra in the south of France from this wonderful family called the Shabers, who agreed to fly it to us across the entire continent of Africa," Contactmusic quoted Nair as saying.

"The Elektra runs on Aveo gas, which is not a gasoline you get now and it was almost like flying it in Amelia's time. You have to keep landing for extra fuel. At one time they radioed down to a country - I won't mention the name - and asked if they had fuel and they said, 'No,' and then said, 'Oh, yes we do.'

"TheElektra landed there and the family was surrounded by 15 soldiers and taken hostage for one and a half days. They demanded 13,000 dollars and we had to fly in 13,000 dollars. They called the French embassy in that country and the French embassy called the producers and we wired the money. We were literally hijacked and the plane arrived 24 hours before the scenes had to be shot. It had to be polished and, oh my God, it was a big saga," she added.