20 years of Dhoom: From John Abraham's dark humour on sets, to Rimi Sen being terrified of dogs, here's some BTS trivia
Dhoom, which became a cult film in Hindi cinema, completes 20 years of it's release on August 27. We talk to actor Rimi Sen and action coordinator Allan Amin.
Dhoom, upon it’s release in 2004, changed how action films in Hindi cinema were conceptualised. From giving a major boost to the sale of bikes virtually overnight, to the craze for the long locks hairstyle John Abraham’s character Kabir sported, it’s hard to dispute the impact it left. Here’s going down memory lane and bringing out some BTS nuggets:
First Bollywood film on bikes
Rimi Sen played the role of Sweety J. Dixit, wife of Abhishek Bachchan’s character Jai. She recalls, “It was the first film about a heist done on bikes. It was mostly done in Hollywood before that. It was Yash Raj Films’ first action film as well.”
‘Took permission from mom for bikini scene’
Esha Deol, who played the role of Sheena Rai, is the lone female crew member in John Abraham’s heist team. She was sporting a bikini on-screen for the first time, and went to mom Hema Malini for her permission. “Of course I had to take permission from my mum about (the bikini). I feel I needed to take it, but when I went and asked, she asked me, ‘Are you seriously asking me something like this. Don’t you go on holidays with friends and wear a bikini on a beach?’ and I know that the people who I was shooting with, I was in good hands,” she had told Bollywood Bubble.
Most dangerous stunt of Dhoom?
The most dangerous stunt, which took the maximum time to shoot was the jump of a superbike between the coaches of a moving train. Allan Amin, who choreographed the action for Dhoom and Dhoom 2 as well, shares, “Both Abhishek and John were more than happy to do the stunts. But the one which required stunt experts was this train jump. I had to time the train, the bikers. I got two Australian guys to do it. I searched on the internet who would be willing to do it, and found them. It was entirely shot in reality, no VFX at all.”
Specially-designed equipment for close-ups
The race sequence was another difficult scene to film. Amin shares, “I was approached by director, late Sanjay Gadhavi for the film, because he knew I was a biker myself. He wanted me to design the whole stunts and the look of the film. I designed equipments for both John and Abhishek’s close ups while they did stunts like a wheelie on the road during the chase sequence.”
From cars to bikes
Amin confirms that originally the plan was to have cars for stunts, but Aditya Chopra felt that the faces of actors won’t be visible, hence they chose bikes. The bikes used in the film are Suzuki Hayabusa (1300cc), the Suzuki GSX-R600 (600cc) and the Suzuki Bandit (1200cc). “The entire team- I, Aditya Chopra (producer) and Sanjay chose the bikes together,” tells us Amin.
‘Scared of dogs’
Rimi, who in real life was scared of dogs, was terrified when she had to hold a puppy in one of the scenes, “Set pe atmosphere bauhaut funny rehta tha. John itna funny nahi tha, he had a dark sense of humour. Abhishek would play a lot of pranks, so would Uday Chopra. What I distinctly I remember is in one of the scenes, I had to give a shot holding a puppy. Meri haalat kharab ho gayi thi, it took time for the makers to convince me. I used to run away if I spotted a dog even five kilometres away, and here I was told to hold and keep it in my lap! Kisi tarah kaam nikaal liya maine because film sign kari hai, paise liye hain. Now I am friendly with dogs.”