Pehli baar laga ki industry ke log bahut khush hai
The Hindustan Times Trailblazer Awards 2021, presented by Ambience, are honouring eight individuals who have shown grit and acumen amid the Covid-19 pandemic that shook the world in 2020. Presenting the final set of awardees...
His production venture, Bell Bottom is the first film to be shot from start to finish during the Covid-19 pandemic, and Jackky Bhagnani couldn’t be prouder. The young producer, along with the cast and crew of the film, flew to the UK to shoot in August last year and finished it on September 30.
Talking about the challenges before him, Bhagnani says, “We went at a time when people were not even getting out of the house, they were that scared. But it was a collaborative effort. Primarily, the credit goes to Akshay (Kumar) sir. Him being the leader and saying, ‘Let’s do it’, is how it all happened. I am just very happy.”
Besides Kumar, the film also stars Huma S Qureshi, Vaani Kapoor, Lara Dutta and Adil Hussain. Bhagnani credits the whole team for making the film’s shooting as smooth an affair as it was.
“We had a very positive team. My dad (Vashu Bhagnani), my sister (Deepshikha Deshmukh), Ranjit, the director and all our actors, we all flew together. All 120 people would be together all the time and during the shoot, every seven days, we were getting tested for Covid-19. It was not easy, it was a production nightmare, but we wouldn’t have been able to do it, if it wasn’t for this crew,” the actorproducer adds.
Not just a logistical challenge, but shooting the film was also an uphill task, financially speaking.
“The expenditure was more than normal. But we still took that plunge. We knew that if we achieved this, we would go down in history. We wanted to be the flag bearers. So we took this strategic call. We were like, ‘someone has to get out there and do it’. Pehli baar aisa laga ki industry ke log bahut khush hai. I can never forget this experience,” Bhagnani says.