Why ‘Mehbooba’ Got Delayed?

2008-07-17T01:04:00.000-07:00

Phew! After almost eight long years the Sanjay Dutt-Ajay Devgan-Manisha Koirala starrer ‘Mehbooba’ finally saw the light of the day last week. Although there were speculations galore over the film’s delay, not many are aware of the fact that it was actually a particular scene in the film’s climax that became the main hindrance to an otherwise completed film. And guess what? It took over 18 months to can that scene! The scene -- featuring all the three lead actors, involved a moving train being chased by a car.

It so happened, for the scene a railway track was required in the middle of the desert. After scouting for locations in Jodhpur, Jaipur and Ajmer, an ideal spot was found in Bikaner. However, the major hitch was that the sand around the track was very fine and certainly not fit for walking, let alone a car being driven on it. Besides, a one-and-a-half kilometer long road was also necessary to shoot the sequence. Director Afzal Khan then asked Nitin Desai, the art director to make a concrete road at the location. It took three months to get the road ready. Following which, Afzal Khan had to wait for almost eight months, to get the combined dates of the actors.

But, Afzal’s ordeal didn’t end there. He was in for a shock when they decided to begin shooting. At the site the military was carrying out a training programme and would continue for at least four weeks. Afzal had about 25 days from his actors but his dates were wasted again.

When Afzal finally managed to get everything in place again, he found that there was more problem in store for him. He had trouble bringing an old steam engine, which was on display in Chandigarh for an exhibition. When he went to check there, he realised that it was dummy train and no longer in use. The only way it could move was with the help of three diesel engines, which would help push the train all the way from Chandigarh to Bikaner.

However, the worst was yet to come, as Afzal realised that the train from Chandigarh came from the opposite side of the track in Bikaner and they could not shoot from that end as they had already made the road on the opposite side of the tracks. He had to call for a special crane from Delhi which could lift the train and put it on the right side of the track. The crane finally came after 20 days while the coal for the dummy train came after about three weeks. Everything went haywire but Afzal refused to get bogged down and compromise on the script. He felt, that particular train sequence was very crucial to the climax.

Click here to watch trailers of Mehbooba.

Aruna Chandrasekharan

The Official Mehbooba movie Blog

2008-05-20T04:05:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Official Mehbooba Blog. We, the Mehbooba team will be posting the latest stories, gossip, and other tit-bits here on the blog - all for you. And yes, a lot of exclusive images, stills from the movie, wallpapers and also pics taken during the making of the movie Mehbooba.

The movie is scheduled for a June 13th, 2008 release.

Mehbooba Synopsis:

Shravan Dhariwal (Sanjay Dutt), a business tycoon, lives in New York. His charm and money gets him any beauty he desires till he meets Varsha (Manisha Koirala). Varsha, an Indian girl values self-respect and morality much above money. She rebukes Shravan’s advances and for the first time in his life Shravan wakes up to the fact that women are not commodities. To make amends, he goes to meet Varsha’s father and asks for her hand in marriage and very soon the two get engaged. They take off on a holiday and get intimate with each other. However, Varsha’s beautiful dream comes to a shocking end when Shravan tells her that his love for her was just a ploy to sleep with her. A devastated Varsha leaves the country away from his life. Later, Shravan is summoned to his hometown for his younger brother Karan’s (Ajay Devgan) wedding to Payal. Shravan meets Payal and is aghast. Payal is none other than Varsha.

Mehbooba Starcast:

Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Manisha Koirala, Reema Lagoo

Other Mehbooba Trivia:

You can also visit the Official Mehbooba website for more information, pictures, trailers.

Also check out the Mehbooba communities at Orkut, Facebook and MySpace.

The Official Mehbooba Blog

Why ‘Mehbooba’ Got Delayed?

The Official Mehbooba movie Blog