Pulling along

Akshay Kumar romances South African model Michelle hanging on the propeller of the aeroplane

Director Abhishek Sharma recalls a scene for the song Meharbani in The Shaukeens which required Akshay Kumar and his leading lady romancing around a vehicle. To give the scene a larger-than-life look, Sharma, instead of using a four- wheeler decided to use a real plane!
The unit was shooting in South Africa, and the director managed to get permission to use a plane, just a day before the shooting. Unfortunately, when he was all set to shoot the next day, due to some reason the person in charge of the plane was not present.
Though he could still go ahead and use the plane, it was parked inside a hangar and everyone was scratching their head trying to figure out how to get the plane rolling without technicians. That’s when Sharma saw Kumar pulling the plane out on his own!
“I didn’t want to shoot inside the hangar because it would not give the scene any depth. Akshay just asked me where I wanted the plane and I showed him the spot. Before I knew it, he had already started pulling the plane. It looked so interesting that I quickly switched on my camera and took that shot. The whole motion of him dragging the plane out looked so very masculine and at the same gave the scene a romantic touch,” laughed the director.
In comedy it is good to shoot a spontaneous moment and this was one, according to the director. “Akshay dragged the plane for more than 50 metres and was so kicked with his new toy that the entire day he kept asking me where he could move it, to the left or right and happily went about doing it.”
The Shaukeens which stars Anupam Kher, Annu Kapoor, Piyush Mishra Lisa Haydon and South African model Michelle, releases on November 7.