The Fun Upside Down World Action of Oye Mamu!

The first day of shooting also brought the most difficult scene. It was a long scene that would have Ruslaan Mumtaz hanging upside down in an open factory shed, being beaten by Gulshan Grover. Now everyone was gung-ho about starting the shoot. That is till the action director Bhiku Verma saw the schedule. He immediately called a meeting and insisted that the shoot be rescheduled and that particular scene be shot over three days. Unfortunately the budget didn’t allow this kind of change. The location was difficult and available only for a day. The team got into a huddle to break the sequence down and on paper it looked doable. 

But the action director, a wise man who had seen many shoots, insisted on erring on the side of caution. Ruslaan, being a young and fit guy said he will take it on. It’s when the shoot started that the team realised that the action director was indeed right. Says Bhiku Verma, “Between makeup, lighting, technical rehearsals, actual rehearsals and sun which was blotted out by pre-monsoon clouds, each shot would take 2 hours. To have Ruslaan hanging upside down for the entire time with blood flowing to his face and head would have resulted in a serious medical situation. But I managed it with the young hero with small breaks.” Bhikuda as Mr Verma is fondly called, personally supervised each movement and made sure Ruslaan spent the least amount of time hanging upside down. At the end of the day even Ruslaan, for all his youthful enthusiasm, had to agree that the action director was indeed right.

Adds Ruslaan, “Without the sage advise of the experienced Bhikuda, the shoot would not have been possible. I was at ease doing the sequence with the experienced veteran.”