It was a very simple scene: The grandmother is holding a mata ki chowki (special puja for the goddess) for her grandson who has returned home after a long time.
But it became the most complicated scene of the whole movie — because the scene had to be abandoned every time director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra attempted to shoot it. After three misfires like this, he pressed the panic button.
Says a unit member, “It was a very important scene in
Delhi 6 where Waheeda Rahman (dadiji) organises a
mata ki chowki when her grandson (Abhishek Bachchan) comes home for the first time. But every time Rakeysh Mehra tried shooting this scene, something would go wrong.”
And these ‘wrongs’ were not even funny. The first time the director attempted to shoot the scene, the entire area had a short circuit. The second time, the mattress on the floor caught fire and shooting had to be called off. It was a hat-trick of sorts when the third time a photo frame with the picture of child Abhishek and Waheeda Rehman as dadiji (a very important component of the scene) just fell down and broke.
“Rakeysh seemed very irritated when he was informed that framing the photo would take a day’s time. It was when Om Puri walked up to Rakeysh and said they were actually pretending to shoot a very powerful puja without the actual act. Om felt that it was inauspicious to do so.”
Then Rakeysh immediately had the production team to arrange for a proper
mata ki chowki for the entire unit and they actually shot the live puja with the cast. Not only that the scene was shot without an issue, the live puja has been incorporated into the movie too.
When we got in touch with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, he confirmed the incident, “It was very surprising (the shootings getting cancelled). I had not experienced this ever before in my life. When we shot (the fourth time with the live
puja), we knew that there was an external force helping us. Call it the hand of God or luck or destiny...”
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