Alpha Ideas

Again, we felt let’s raise the ante. So, we got Jim Allen and Gerry Crampton and their team. They did wonders to all the action sequences… the train sequence… they are all remembered scenes. We were shooting this climax sequence where Dharamji is tied up and Hema sings a song.

 

‘In kutton ke saamne mat nachna Basanti’.

 

She is almost collapsing from exhaustion and she is with Dharamji. The shot was that, at that precise moment, Amitabh comes and frees Dharamji. So a whole new life, a spirit is awakened at that moment. He rushes to Hema.

 

There was a box — a metallic box — lying there and Jim insisted he wanted a shot of real bullets. So Veeru kicks it open, pulls out all the bullets and fills them in and goes on. And then the marathon shooting sequence takes place. But in that moment, what happened was, because he (Dharmendra) was high, he kept coming.

 

High, as in he had a drink? On the sets? How did you allow that?

Yes. In a coconut (both laugh). We didn’t know. We only realised after this moment.

That’s a Punjabi Jat!

(Laughs) He was determined to do it because Jim had said, ‘This is the way it’s got to be done.’ So he had to do it.

There were about 12 or 13 retakes. Either the box wouldn’t kick open, or if he finally got his hands in, the bullets fell. You know, it didn’t come right.

That’s when he actually took a real bullet, put it in the gun, and fired (in the air). He was frustrated with himself. Right up there was Amitabh and the bullet grazed past him by inches.

Jim Allen took off his hat and said, ‘I’m not shooting. He can’t be drinking on the sets. He could have killed anybody. It could have been me, it could have been you, it could have been any worker. This is not right.’ Of course, Dharamji apologised and was perfect after that… he would do everything right.-said Ramesh Sippy in IE