The actor wanted to shoot in a place which was a few hours away from Mumbai.
What Shah Rukh Khan wants, he gets. Rohit Shetty had planned an entire schedule in Ooty. He and his team of Chennai Express had gone and finalised all the places there too, but SRK didn’t want to shoot so far away from Mumbai. He wanted easy access to the city. So he asked the director to recreate Ooty (Tamil Nadu) in Wai (Maharashtra).
Since the actor was going to be stationed out of Mumbai for months at end, he wanted to shoot in a place which was a few hours away from Mumbai. And from where he could fly or drive, as and whenever he wanted to. Of course, creating Ooty in Wai meant a lot of unnecessary expense, but SRK the producer, was willing to indulge SRK the actor, so it was done.
Chennai Express is a love story between Deepika Padukone and SRK who meet on a train journey. One of the cities they travel through is the beautiful and picturesque hill station of Ooty. However, SRK had a chat with Rohit and convinced him to construct Ooty in Panchgani as the topography and locales are both places are quite similar.”
Recreating the lanes and bylanes of Ooty along with some of its tourist spots, was constructed on the outskirts of Panchgani in Wai. It took over 40 days to make the set and cost over Rs1.5 crore. Though this construction meant spending extra money, it made sense to SRK because he could be in Mumbai often for his other work commitments. The film will release on Eid and is being shot at breakneck speed now.
Art director Narendra Ruharikar, who has constructed the set in Panchgani says, “The brief was to create a South Indian hill station around the hills and I have done just that. I have created it outside Panchgani and at Wai. It’s not Ooty.” Rohit Shetty, however says, “It’s a small village in Panchgani. We haven’t recreated Ooty there.”
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