It’s His-story

After director Shankar shot a song for Robot (Enthiran) at Machu Pichu in Peru, We Are Family’s Siddharth Malhotra has become the first director to shoot a Bollywood film at St Mary’s Cathredal, Australia.

After director Shankar shot a song for Robot (Enthiran) at Machu Pichu in Peru, We Are Family’s Siddharth Malhotra has become the first director to shoot a Bollywood film at St Mary’s Cathredal, Australia. Even Moulin Rouge director Baz Lurhman had been refused permission for filming within their sacred premises.



However, Malhotra was adamant to shoot at the location and it took him four months to get the required permission. "It’s the equivalent of Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai. There, the Cardinal is a higher authority than the Prime Minister. It took a lot of convincing. We assured him that we’d keep the sanctity of the place intact," says Malhotra.

The Cathedral authorities agreed to let in only eight crew members apart from the artistes (Kareena Kapoor and the three kids). Malhotra admits that he had to carefully break the scenes since they were permitted to shoot only for two hours inside the church. "The church personnel were present while filming the scenes to ensure that the church’s sanctity was maintained. It was almost like creating history," Malhotra beams.



Malhotra is also on a high since he shot a song sequence with Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal at the Twelve Apostles by the Great Ocean Road, Victoria. "I thought of shooting montages but that would have been very typical. But I fell in love with the location at first sight. It looked so heavenly," gushes Malhotra.

“Filming in Australia wasn’t easy,” sighs Malhotra. “The weather conditions weren’t encouraging. But it all turned around just in time for the shoot. And that’s nothing less than a miracle.”