Jhoom Barabar Jhoom: Interesting tidbits

June 2007 23.00 IST By Nikhil Kumar

You may be surprised to know that director Shaad Ali never visited London before he shot his movie Jhoom Barabar Jhoom there.As another big Yashraj Films presentation is about to hit the theatres, here is presenting some interesting tidbits about the flick.

LONDON DREAMS

The movie’s director Shaad Ali is basically from a small town (Kanpur) in India. He went to London for the first time to shoot JBJ. It was a big task as everyone in the movie’s cast had been to the metropolis a number of times and Shaad, a first timer, had to direct them in a city he was visiting the first time. But Shaad is such a strong self-believer that he did not let London’s modern cityscape overwhelm him. Rather, he used his small-town sensibility to capture the milieu of London on celluloid.

LARA’S LUCK

Initially, the film’s producer Aditya Chopra and Shaad Ali had approached Vidya Balan to play the female lead opposite Abhishek Bachchan in the film. But Vidya developed cold feet when she learnt that she would have to dance in skimpy western outfits in a number of songs in the film. That’s when Shaad sent an SMS to Lara Dutta , asking her for a meeting to discuss the role. Unfortunately, Lara was at that time looking after her parents who were in hospital because of poor health. So Lara replied Shaad that he would have to wait for a week. During this time, Lara hoped Shaad would not misunderstand her response as high-headedness. Lara’s hope wasn’t in vain. Shaad waited until Lara was free to spare time for him. And Lara got hooked to her role after just a single narration.

PAKISTANI CONNECTION

In ‘Jhoom Barabar Jhoom’, both Lara Dutta and Preity Zinta play Pakistani girls. Preity Zinta plays Alvira Khan, a girl from Lahore. Lara plays Anaida, a British-born Pakistani girl. Both Abhishek Bachchan and Bobby Deol play Indians. The film’s story is a complicated love quadrangle between two engaged couples.

BIG B AND THE FEATHERED HAT

It is by now common knowledge that Amitabh Bachchan plays a sutradhar in the film. He appears in the song ‘Jhoom’ for which designer Aki Narula designed a special outfit made from several torn pieces of shawls, durries and carpet sown together. Big B is made to look like a rockstar in the song. But there is one addition in the outfit that happened at the last moment – the feathered hat. When Bachchan was going to face the camera he saw the hat lying around and asked director Shaad Ali if he can wear it for the song. Shaad happily said yes.

BOBBY AND ABHI’S BIKE RIDE

One sequence in JBJ has Bobby and Abhi riding a bike. When the scene was to be shot, Shaad Ali came upon the idea of shooting the scene with a similar motorbike that Amitabh and Dharmendra had rode in Sholay . A similar bike was arranged. Like their fathers, Bobby was made to sit on the driver’s seat while Abhi sat in the attached buggy.