Filmmakers are known to shell out lots of money to shoot at actual or authentic locations to get the ambience and mood right. In the case of Double Dhamaal, producer Ashok Thakeria had to construct a set of a casino at Mehboob Studio in Bandra for a price of Rs 1.5 crore.
Mallika Sherawat’s item song ‘Jalebi Bai’ and part of the climax of his forthcoming comedy, Double Dhamaal, which he’s making in association with Reliance Entertainment, was shot there.
Though director Indra Kumar could have filmed the sequences in casinos in Goa or Macau, he didn’t think it would be feasible. “They would only let us shoot for a few hours in a day, and that too only at night. Since we required to shoot all day long, we had no option, but to build this set,” says Thakeria. Major parts of the film’s climax have been shot in Macau as well. It was the pictures that the production team clicked on their trips to Macau that inspired the set design in Mumbai.
“Credit goes to art director Tanushree Sarkar for putting up such a brilliant set. Other actors and filmmakers would drop in to have a look around as they had heard a lot about it,” he says, adding that it is worth the Rs 1.5 crore it cost to make in two-odd weeks. But he’s unperturbed about the expense, as he feels the song will go on to become a chartbuster.
Sherawat’s item number, which has been composed by Anand Raj Anand and choreographed by Ganesh Acharya, also features Sanjay Dutt, Kangna Ranaut, Riteish Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi, Ashish Chowdry and Jaaved Jaffery.
The team became so attached to the casino that it broke their hearts to learn that after completing their 12-day shoot, the set would be dismantled. “We were telling each other that if we could manage a license, then the casino would continue to stand and actually function,” he says, laughing.
However, the film’s promotion will not start with the ‘Jalebi Bai’ number. “We’ll promote it somewhere in the middle of the campaign, closer to the film’s release on June 24,” he adds.
