SRINAGAR: The 2010 film Bollywood flick Lamhaa, starring Sanjay Dutt and Bipasha Basu, was filmed entirely in Kashmir, where director Rahul Dholakia and his crew claimed he faced extreme risks, including being held hostage by people for over four hours. Seemingly he was referring to 2010 unrest during the first term of Omar Abdullah as the Chief Minister.
In a recent interview, Dholakia revealed the dangers encountered during the shoot amidst heightened militant activity, and how he misled Bipasha Basu into filming during a curfew.
Speaking with casting director Mukesh Chhabra on Mashable India, Dholakia recalled the hostage incident.
“I was adamant about shooting Lamhaa in Kashmir. There was no government, and terrorists were everywhere,” The Indian Express quoted Dholakia saying. “On the first day, we were taken hostage along with 10,000 people for 4-4.5 hours. They surrounded us while we were filming in a mandi, locking all the doors and demanding to know, ‘Who is the producer?’ The production team hid, and I stepped forward, asking, ‘What is the problem?’ They insisted I accompany them. The CRPF jawans and Jammu Police fled, leaving me locked in a room with 400 others, where I was told, ‘You are against Kashmir.'”
Dholakia further claimed, “I spent 4-4.5 hours in captivity. A CRPF officer gave me his number before leaving, and we were eventually released when someone recognised me as the director of Parzania. I pleaded, ‘If you have an issue with me, let the women in my crew go.’ They replied, ‘You are in Kashmir, not Hindustan. We respect our women.’” Dholakia’s earlier film, Parzania, focuses on the 2002 Gulbarg Society massacre during the Gujarat riots, in which 69 people lost their lives.
After the hostage crisis, Bipasha left the shoot but returned to finish the film. Explaining why he cast her as a Kashmiri woman, Dholakia noted, “I wanted to film in the Valley, but few actors were willing to shoot there. Karisma had just had children and was interested in the project but refused to work in Kashmir. Deepika Padukone also declined for the same reason.”
Dholakia also revealed that Bipasha was angered when she found out he had tricked her into filming during a curfew. “I filmed during a curfew with Bipasha, and she was furious with me. We didn’t inform her about the curfew. She was happy, saying, ‘Kashmir is so beautiful. There aren’t many people here.’ When she later realised there was a curfew, she called and said, ‘How dare you make me shoot during a curfew?’”
Lamhaa is a Bollywood masala film that tells the story of an undercover Indian Army officer who collaborates with the daughter of a separatist leader to expose those behind extremist attacks in Kashmir.
