Sham Kaushal recounts directing son Vicky Kaushal’s immolation scene in Dunki: ‘Never been so scared; Rajkumar Hirani said…’

Sham recalled discussing the scene with Hirani, initially planning for Vicky’s character to run away from the fire. However, he felt this approach wouldn’t convey the desired emotion. “And I was like if he runs, it will look like a stunt because he (Vicky’s character) is dead inside when he takes the call and comes out, he is a dead man, so he is not thinking about the fire. So if he runs then the emotion would not come out properly.”

Despite the challenges, Sham was determined to capture the scene perfectly. Hirani still remarks on Sham’s stress levels during filming, saying he had never seen him so anxious before. For Sham, it wasn’t just about Vicky; every actor is like family to him, as he said, “It’s not only about Vicky, it could be any child, they are all like my children, they all started off together. So if he ran it would be easy but that’s not how we would get the right emotion. And we wanted to achieve the best out of the scene.”

Interestingly, Vicky’s journey in the film industry began with humble beginnings. Sham shared that Vicky worked as an assistant director on Gangs Of Wasseypur, and how he would often get behind the bars for shooting candidly. “If I have ever made any calls for him, it was during that time. I had called Anurag (Kashyap) asking him to give Vicky an apprenticeship. So he (Vicky) took a train to join Anurag. It’s there where he learnt that nothing comes easy. He worked very hard and became a part of the second unit and they had to do candid shooting for which they used to get caught (by the police). But that is fun, that’s how one learns. It is his journey, he will learn that way,” Sham said.