‘Thailand police is not like India’s’

Be Careful’s crew not allowed to shoot at Bangkok police station after magistrate revokes premission at last minute.

Upcoming film Be Careful hit a roadblock during its shoot in Bangkok recently. A scene that was to be shot at a police station in The Thai capital was stalled when the city’s magistrate revoked the permissions that the crew had already acquired.

The film, starring Rajneesh Duggal, Tanisha, Tulip Joshi and newcomer is Zaid, involves Rajneesh’s and Zaid’s characters going to Bangkok on holiday and staying in a hotel, where only couples are allowed.

The manager of the hotel, Rajpal Yadav, makes sure this rule is enforced. So Rajneesh and Zaid hire two prostitutes and disguise them as their wives. But somehow, the police recognise the two women as streetwalkers and detain the four of them.

But director Chandrakant Singh was in for a rude shock when his shoot at the Ragdagri Police Station was stalled prematurely. He recalls, “In Bangkok, the judiciary is the main authority and everything is managed by the magistrate. He is the one who has the final say in all matters. So in the evening, when we were about to take the first shot of the day, a magistrate from the area landed up on the set and demanded to see the script. After reading the English version, he claimed that since Thailand’s police were not like India’s, he couldn’t allow us to go ahead with the shoot.”

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Apparently, the magistrate had major issues with a part of the script, where the four protagonists were detained and made to sit on the floor of the police station. However, the Bangkok police were very cooperative and even provided their uniforms to the film crew. The next day, the shoot was completed on a makeshift set within a few hours.