Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra recalls how he shot Bhaag Milkha Bhaag in Pakistan without permission: ‘He gave us 10 minutes’

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra recalled shooting at the Ferozepur border, and requesting a Pakistani official to let them cross over to the other side in order to get an important shot.

Farhan Akhtar played the lead role in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.

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Director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, starring Farhan Akhtar, is one of the few Indian films that was allowed to shoot in Pakistan. In Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’s case, it was an impromptu decision by the director that led the team to cross the border. Mehra, in a recent interview, revealed that to shoot Milkha’s return to his birthplace, he and his cinematographer Binod Pradhan set foot on Pakistani soil.

Sharing the anecdote with The Times of India, Mehra said that he was “making this film as realistically as possible,” and therefore, they decided to shoot the sequence in question at the Ferozepur border. The makers got permission from the BSF to shoot there, but they could only shoot from the India side, and not the Pakistan side.

Mehra said that every time they rolled the camera and shot the bus crossing the border, he said to himself, “mazaa nahi aa raha (this is not it)”. He finally went up to the BSF official present on location, and asked if he could take his equipment on the other side. The official immediately said no, as Mehra did not have his passport and a valid visa, and had no permission to shoot in Pakistan. He then went up to the officer’s Pakistani counterpart, and explained that they were doing a film on the legendary athlete and also spoke about the importance of the Friendship Games.

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“Ek hota hai desh, aur ek hota hai watan, aur voh apne watan laut rahe they. He was born in that land,” he told the officer, who eventually allowed them to shoot for 10 minutes. “Aa jao, 10 minutes mein khatam kar lena (Come, but complete it in 10 minutes),” the officer said. Mehra and his cinematographer Pradhan picked up their camera, tripod, and lenses, and walked over to the Pakistani side. “The gate was opened and the bus went through and we got the shot,” Mehra recalled fondly.

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag recently completed 10 years of release.

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