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Neerja Bhanot Biopic : Stars help out

The crew of Neerja had stars dropping in to give them a pep talk to boost their morale

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Aamir Khan, Vidya Balan, Anil Kapoor, Rajkumar Hirani and Boman Irani visited the sets of Neerja, the biopic on the life of flight attendant Neerja Bhanot. No, they aren’t doing walk-in parts in the movie, nor were they on the sets just to meet Sonam Kapoor, who plays the lead role. It was director Ram Madhvani who invited them on the sets to interact and motivate the 220-member team playing passengers on board the hijacked Pan Am Flight 73 and had to sit long, gruelling shooting hours. 

His idea worked well. Ram says, “The 220 passengers were people cast after thousands of tests. To me, each and every one of them was important to the film. Years in advertising have taught me that they weren’t just background cast. They not only had to act in a believable real way  but also understand the responsibility of what we were doing. What did the real passengers feel? How did they go through the 16-hour ordeal of being hijacked? As a director, I knew it was critical for the featured cast to get motivated to give the film everything they had emotionally and for them to believe in the film and to do justice to the memory of those who died.”

Guests on sets
Most of the movie is shot inside an aircraft specially constructed for filming. And while Sonam has the challenge of getting the intense scenes right, the cast playing the passengers had to sit through long hours of shooting. It was important for the filmmakers to ensure that the extras  didn’t tire of the exercise and lose interest. One person not showing up for the shoot would put the entire continuity in jeopardy. To ensure that the cast members stayed motivated, the makers invited actors and filmmakers to talk to the passengers and give them pep talks every now and then. The first day of the shoot was extra special. “On the first day of the shoot, we were blessed by Neerja’s mother Rama and brothers Aneesh and Akhil, who came to light a diya in Neerja’s memory. Rama inspired all of us by her courage and spirit. Then came the guests — our friends and family and people I respect a lot, and of course great actors and directors, who inspired us as we embarked on this journey.”

The guest list
Aamir, Vidya, Boman, Anil and Hirani all showed up to boost the morale of the cast. Ram says, “I knew that getting Aamir, Boman, Vidya, Raju and Anil to speak to the cast would help instil in the team the dedication that this film would require. I am forever in the debt of Aamir, Boman, Anil, Raju and Vidya for giving their time and energy and supporting us. Aamir also gave the mahurat shot of our film. My idea of getting the guests worked very well as the entire cast and team gave it their all through the all-night shoots. Not one person of the 220 people missed a single shoot even if they were not well.”

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