Chamatkar speech in 3 Idiots, to the slap scene in Golmaal, here’s the story behind these hilarious shots
We laughed hard when we saw them for the first time, and still do after all these years — some funny scenes have a way of being imprinted on our minds forever, like the ‘chamatkar’ speech in the 2009 film 3 Idiots! But did you know how these scenes came into being?
Bollywood’s go-to formula for success has always been comedy. Even the most serious film will have a light-hearted moment to relax the viewers. What’s more, a clean comedy film, minus any vulgar, double meaning dialogues or action, always finds takers. Over the years, many Bollywood films such as Welcome, 3 Idiots, Golmaal franchise and many more, found a way into our hearts, even if for that one comedy scene.
But did you know what went on behind the scenes? Read here:
OMI VAIDYA’S CHAMATKAR SPEECH IN 3 IDIOTS (2009)
This speech was deemed as the highlight of the Aamir Khan-starrer. Los Angeles-based actor Omi Vaidya didn’t have a good understanding of Hindi, (in both reel and real life), and the overall impact that the speech had was amazing. He had said about this particular scene in an interview to Bollywood Hungama, “We shot for the scene at least ten times. Then, we got the students of the college we were shooting in to see their reaction. We wanted a real response, and they were roaring with laughter.”
Actor Sharman Joshi, who played one of the leads in the film, recalls an interesting behind-the-scenes trivia. “It was an exceptionally well-written scene, performed by Omi. His accent was his lethal weapon! What’s interesting to note is that our reactions to his speech were shot after Omi had already shot for it. We were given cues to react by Rajkumar Hirani, the director.”
THE FUNERAL SCENE IN WELCOME (2007)
This Akshay Kumar-starrer was a laugh riot, and this scene, in particular, gave 15 minutes of non-stop laughter, where RDX (played by late actor Feroz Khan) is informed that his son Lucky is dead, and he breaks down. Anees Bazmee, the director, recalls, “Paresh Rawal was supposed to lie down on the pyre and pretend to be RDX’s son under the sheet. Feroz saab was a Pathan, and he had to shake his son’s body and ask why he is dead? Being a well-built, strong man, he started punching the body trying to bring it to life. Paresh afterwards said ‘Feroz ji itne bade aadmi hain, main unhe kuchh bol bhi nahi sakta. Yeh mujhe maar rahe hain’. The problem was even we couldn’t tell this to Feroz ji, and we respected him. I told Paresh that I will do whatever else he tells me to, but not this. It became even funnier when Feroz ji asked us ‘Aur zor se karoon? (Should I hit harder?)’. Then I had to finally say ‘Sir thoda zor se ho raha hai’. He said ‘I am a don, my son is dead, I will have to cry harder!’ Then I said Paresh ko thoda lag bhi raha hai na. He immediately said ‘you should have told me earlier!’ and apologised to Paresh.”
SLAP SCENE FEATURING MANOJ JOSHI IN GOLMAAL (2006)
Veteran actor Manoj Joshi played the role of a college principal in the film, who has come to invite the visually-challenged professor (originally played by Paresh Rawal) to a college function. He has, however, never met him before, so Ajay Devgn grabs the opportunity to fool him. He dons Paresh’s clothes and meets Manoj. Manoj recalls, “This scene was improvised a lot, and originally, there weren’t these many slaps in it — it was during the shoot that we went with the flow! Everybody was in character, and the director, Rohit Shetty gave us complete freedom. I added Hindi and Sanskrit words to my dialogues, and even added the stammer that wasn’t there originally. We started at nine in the morning, and it took us almost half of the day to complete the scene. But no, none of the slaps were real!” One more such scene was when Manoj’s character is expelling Ajay Devgn, Tushhar, Sharman Joshi and Arshad Warsi from the college. “During that scene, my wig comes off while screaming, but it wasn’t supposed to! I had simultaneously been shooting for Guru, and my character in that film was bald. I was wearing a wig for Golmaal. That added to the comedy of the scene, so it was retained.”
EK CHUTKI SINDOOR’S DRUNK VERSION IN OM SHANTI OM (2007)
This dialogue has over the years, attained iconic status. Performed by actor Deepika Padukone’s character originally in the film, Shah Rukh Khan, after getting drunk, re-enacts the scene, and of course, leaves the viewers in splits. Actor Shreyas Talpade, who played SRK’s friend in the film, says, “While shooting for the particular scene, Shah Rukh would keep fooling around. He would make faces, and what not. Farah (Khan, the director) thought it was me and others who were spoiling the scene with our antics. This kept going on for some time, till she eventually figured that it was him. And then she scolded us!”
KARTIK AARYAN’S MONOLOGUE IN PYAAR KA PUNCHNAMA 1 AND 2 (2011; 2015)
This monologue, in which Kartik Aaryan’s character vents out his anger, became so popular in the first part, that a new version was written for Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 as well. Kartik had earlier said in an India TV in an interview, “The monologue (in PKP 2) went viral and got a standing ovation, hooting and clapping. It was a 12-minute and 12-page long shot. It took me almost six days, five sleepless nights and seven to eight takes. I used to shoot other scenes of the film during the day and listen to the monologue, which I had recorded while driving back home in my car. It was tough initially, but it became easy as I had everything on my mind.” Luv Ranjan, the director tells us, “The biggest challenge was that we shot on film, and each magazine in a reel is 4 minutes long. We had to time Kartik’s speech in a way that it took just one reel. It did happen once that he went on saying it, but the reel got over! We did a total of 10 takes, out of which three were complete ones.”
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