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JP Dutta on how he turned a prankster on his movie set
Along with being a disciplinarian, JP Dutta is also someone who loves having fun on the sets of his films. While shooting for his comeback movie, Paltan, the filmmaker played a prank on the actors from his movie — Harshvardhan Rane and Gurmeet Choudhary.
Dutta explains, “Gurmeet and Harshvardhan used to workout a lot. They would wake up at 5am, run at least 5kms every day in the terrain (Ladakh), where the oxygen was 20% less, then they would hit the gym, workout again and come for the shoot. So, yes, they were quite the fitness freaks. Many times they would walk around bare bodied. And I was like okay since these guys are showing their good bodies, let me give them their dues.”
So, what exactly did the filmmaker do? Dutta reveals, “One fine morning when we woke up, it was snowing in the upper reaches of Leh, so I called the unit and told them that I wanted to shoot a scene and immediately drove up to 18,000 feet. I also informed Gurmeet and Harsh that I wanted to do a scene with them and they were more than willing. However, after we reached our spot, I told them to remove all layers and get bare bodied as we were going to shoot a scene. And they were like ‘Sir, how can we do it?’ (because obviously, it was freezing).” Dutta smiles recalling the moment and tells us that he told them why he did that, later.
However, he adds that he deliberately wanted them to workout while lying down on the snow because he had seen a video of the Chinese army doing exercise in the snow, bare bodied. “So I thought, if they can, we also can. I must add that both Gurmeet and Harsh were quite sporting, and the fact that they trusted me makes me feel like working with them again and again,” adds Dutta.
Interestingly, he has reportedly signed a three-film deal contract with the actors.