Abbas-Mustan bring in black!

Abhishek Bachchan gets black jackets for men in white so they don’t merge with snow in the North Pole. From their shirts and trousers to their shoes and occasional jackets, the director duo is always dressed in spotless white.

For years now, directors Abbas-Mustan haven’t worn any other colour, but white. From their shirts and trousers to their shoes and occasional jackets, the director duo is always dressed in spotless white. But earlier this year, when they were filming Players in Murmansk, Russia, Abhishek Bachchan went shopping and returned with three black-hooded jackets for the duo and their editor brother, Hussain.

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The actor was worried that the trio, in their all-white attire, would merge with the snow. “And guess how they repaid me for my thoughtfulness?” says Abhishek, tongue-in-cheek. “By making me take a dip in a frozen lake with the temperature dipping to minus 10 degrees and the biting Arctic wind adding to the chill.”

The Indian remake of the The Italian Job is the first Bollywood film to be shot at the Arctic circle. Several action sequences, including one that required Abhishek to jump from a crane onto a running train, were shot there. In another, Abhishek was supposed to emerge from a frozen lake.

Safety officers in Siberia were initially leery of giving permission for such a shoot, pointing out that in the sub-zero temperature, anyone would freeze to death in 30 seconds.