Bollywood action flick Dishoom ready to start filming in Abu Dhabi

In an exclusive interview with The National, Mini Sarma, the general manager of Dubai’s 7 Media Production Company reveals that the film director Rohit Dhawan is in Abu Dhabi scouting locations for his action flick Dishoom.

Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan will be coming to the capital next month to shoot scenes for their film. AFP

Dishoom, Bollywood's own Fast and Furious-style thriller, is set to start shooting in Abu Dhabi next month – but it seems that the high-octane chases will be more likely to involve motorbikes than F1 cars.

The National can exclusively reveal that the stars, including Varun Dhawan, John Abraham and Jacqueline Fernandez, will start arriving in Abu Dhabi in the last week of October. Dishoom will be shooting there for five weeks, making it the longest film shoot to date to take place in the capital, with more than 90 cast and crew members flying in.

Director Rohit Dhawan is currently on a tour of Abu Dhabi, scouting for locations. He is being joined by Mini Sarma, general manager of Dubai’s 7 Media Production Company.

“The preparations are going quite well,” Sarma says. “I am currently on a technical recce with the director. There will be filming going on at 40 locations, we are just finalising which these will be.”

Next week, Sarma will know how many extras Dishoom will require and budding actors in the UAE will then get a chance to try for a part.

Emiratis will also work as interns on the ­production.

7 Media was involved in the making of two other big-budget Bollywood films that have been shot recently in the UAE – Happy New Year! (2014) with Shah Rukh Khan; and Airlift, filmed earlier this year in the capital with Akshay Kumar. It is due to be released in January.

Airlift, which is about Indians who were stuck in Kuwait during the Gulf War, required 2,815 ­extras to shoot in Ras Al Khaimah in March.

Dishoom is the first time brothers Rohit and Varun have worked together on a film.

Varun has been in the middle of a gruelling filming schedule, as he has also been filming alongside Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Kriti Sanon for the much-anticipated Dilwale, a romantic drama by director Rohit Shetty, which is being partly shot in Bulgaria and is due to be released in December.

It has been recently revealed that Rahul Dev will be playing the main villain in Dishoom and confirmed that he will be joining the rest of the crew for filming in Abu Dhabi.

When shooting the film in Morocco for two weeks in July, the Dishoom cast and crew, including Dev, were put up at the five-star Le Berbere Palace in the town of Quarzazate.

Will they get to experience Abu Dhabi's own palatial accommodation – Emirates Palace – as Furious 7 stars did? We'll keep you posted.

Abu Dhabi is now well and truly on the map for Bollywood producers. In the past year, it's also played host to the blockbusters Bang Bang! and Baby.

Dishoom's producers said that they were attracted to Abu Dhabi for its unique locations, ease of accessibility from India, the Abu Dhabi Film Commission's 30 per cent production rebate, and the city's ever-expanding filmmaking infrastructure.

"I think Abu Dhabi was chosen by the makers of Dishoom because the government was fully supporting the project," says Sarma. "The rebate was a major factor in it. Abu Dhabi is a great place to shoot Bollywood films."