Scoops: When a make-believe storm shoot turned real on 'Kedarnath' sets

After Hrs was the first to tell you that Karisma Kapoor has been offered a web series, to be produced for Ekta Kapoor’s digital banner. The show, which has been tentatively titled Mentalhood will roll out sometime next year. The pre-production on the same is currently on. We recently asked Lolo about it, but she declined to divulge details. “It’s too early to talk about this, but it is work in progress.” This will mark her return to showbiz after a sabbatical. The show will be spread across seasons and is reported to have a progressive social theme around it. 

Abhishek Kapoor’s upcoming directorial Kedarnath, starring Sushant Singh Rajput and Sara Ali Khan, has been shot against the picturesque landscape of the pilgrimage town. But we hear, shooting at real locations was a challenging task for the makers. Situated at the height of 11,755 ft in the Himalayas, Kedarnath has a bone-chilling climate flanked by snow-capped peaks. For a few shots, the team had to film outdoors in the extreme weather and they ended up facing a storm.

Abhishek tells us that the climate was so cold that the team had arranged hot water buckets, which were used during the break in-between shots to help maintain the body temperature. “One of the sequences had to be shot in rain and storm. So, we had arranged a snow and storm creator machine. But on the day of the shoot, we faced a real and an unexpected squall. The cast and crew showed enough courage and continued shooting. Those scenes will be shown in the movie,” he reveals.

Vikrant Massey spares no effort in his bid to impress the audiences with his performances. The Dil Dhadakne Do and Death In The Gunj actor’s next venture, Pind Daan, helmed by the veteran theatre actress Seema Pahwa, gives him an opportunity to collaborate with a powerful ensemble of actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Konkona Sensharma, Vinay Pathak, Parambrata Chatterjee and Manoj Pahwa. Seema, who makes her directorial debut with this film, has already begun shooting it in Lucknow, during which he was moved to tears.

According to a source, “This film is a family drama based on love, relationships and emotions. Tentatively, it deals with a substantial procedure of pind daan or paying homage to deceased ancestral souls. Vikrant actually visited the infamous pind daan spot — Devyani Lake in Kanpur — to understand the essence of the entire ritual. He found the entire ritual so mentally draining that he got quite emotional and the process left him teary-eyed.”

Following the huge success of Dilbar, which she rendered with Neha Kakkar and Ikka Singh and Ishare Tere, which she sang along with Guru Randhawa, Dhvani Bhanushali is all set to release her first solo single that takes you down memory lane. The young singer is said to recreate Shreya Ghoshal’s magic with her rendition of the chartbuster number, Leja Leja Re. Featuring Dhvani, the remake by Tanishk Bagchi has new lyrics by Rashmi Virag. Shot in an exquisite palace in Alwar, Rajasthan, its video is directed by Radhika Rao and Vinay Sapru. While retaining the beauty of the original track, the makers have given a modern touch to the new version with fresh beats.

Having made several pop songs and videos in the past, before foraying into directing films and film songs, the director duo was thinking of exploring the idea of making a pop song again as they ‘really believe the time for a solo artiste is back and the audience wants to listen to new talented singers. “When we heard the recreated version of our own hit song Leja Leja Re by Tanishk in Dhvani’s voice, we were pleasantly surprised and also super impressed. It was as good.. if not better than our own original hit song. And we knew this will be a modern-day young age love track that will travel,” echo Radhika-Vinay.

The director duo add, “We’ve heard Dhvani’s previous work also and she has made this rendition of Leja Leja Re sound very special. What was most refreshing was to see this young talented singer so comfortable in front of the camera and that confidence made us decide to direct this song. The original song was shot by us with the music legend Ustad Sultan Khan and the reaction we received at that time was humbling. We had to do justice to that. We have tried to make an amalgamation of old and new with this track, with the talented composer and singer team of Tanishk and Dhvani. And we’re so happy that this track, which is shot as a story of first love, has shaped up as good as our original superhit song.”