Rakesh Omprakash Mehra's great pains for cross border shoots

When you are making a film on a real life person or instance, the locations used to shoot become of utmost importance in giving an authentic feel to the movie. Filmmaker Rakesh Omprakash Mehra is one of the few directors who is known to go to great lengths to bring that authenticity to his films. But this time he surprised his entire team with the extent he went to get permissions to shoot at a particular location.

“Bhaag Milkha Bhaag is based on the legendary sprinter Milkha Singh’s life. He had apparently crossed the Hossani border and Rakesh was keen on shooting in Pakistan for a few scenes to depict that. Hossani border is usually off limits for shooting so Rakesh had to go through a great deal to get the required special permissions for the same. He even shot at the Waga border for the film. The entire team knew that Rakesh was running around, trying to get the final nod to shoot at the Hossani border and when it came through, they were all ecstatic. It’s a high security area and that’s why shoots are not encouraged there,” informs a unit hand.