Akshay Kumar and the rest of the cast and crew of the Bollywood movie Baby are unexpectedly back in Abu Dhabi to continue shooting.
The team had already filmed scenes at several locations in the capital, including the Galleria Mall on Maryah Island and on Yas Island, when we caught up with Kumar and the crew in unusual surroundings last week – the back of an outside-broadcast van at Abu Dhabi production house Live! HD.
Fans wondering what the back of an outside-broadcast van has to do with an action thriller needn’t worry, however. The movie hasn’t had a sudden genre identity crisis and changed into a sports comedy.
We understand that the van was doubling as a surveillance vehicle, and Kumar revealed that the scenes in which it appears won’t be set in Abu Dhabi.
“We’re shooting in the van, which is supposed to be in Turkey, so we’ve had to bring two of the actors over from Istanbul for these scenes,” he says. “It’s a proper international story, with scenes in Nepal, Turkey, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, India – all over the place.”
When we last met Kumar on set, in September, we expected that would be the last we'd see of him in Abu Dhabi until he returns next May to shoot his next feature, Airlift.
“When we shot here earlier it was just too hot, so we went back to Bombay and filmed some more scenes then came back to shoot here again,” he says, explaining the unexpected return.
“It’s a smaller crew here this time, just a mini-unit for five or six days – about 45 of us I think – and most of the other actors will follow me over later in the week as they only have a couple of days of shooting to do.”
Kumar is becoming something of a regular on the Abu Dhabi production scene, and he seems very pleased with what the city has to offer.
“I was just speaking to my producer about the experience here,” he says. “I’ve shot in many other places and in Abu Dhabi it’s very clean and clear. You pay, you shoot, nobody’s going to stop you, nothing happens under the table, there’s no playing around. It’s all crystal clear. I love that.
“Some places I’ve shot, they give the permission then somebody else comes in and says: ‘You didn’t ask my permission so you have to give me money too,’ and then somebody else comes in and the same thing.
“Film crews are soft targets because they have no other choice but to pay once they’re there. This place doesn’t have that at all. If your permissions are there, you’re fine.”
Kumar reveals that the latest Abu Dhabi scenes are pretty much the last pieces of filming before the movie goes into post-production, ready for its anticipated January release.
He says that he has enjoyed the shoot, particularly the opportunity to reunite with director Neeraj Pandey, with whom he worked on the crime thriller Special 26.
"I'm a huge fan of my director," he says. "Special 26 was a great movie and he also made A Wednesday, which was a big success too.
“He’s a director that makes real story-based films, and that’s what this is. He picks up things from real stories, watches everything and adapts things from the newspaper, then he makes the story of how he wants to portray this to the world. He’s not predictable.”
Emphasising this point, Kumar adds: "He's making a serious film and it's called Baby, that's one of the most intriguing things.
"A lot of people ask me what this means – why Baby? What has Baby got to do with a thriller? The film is basically in the genre of The Bourne Identity, and amazingly he's called the movie Baby.
"I tell them, 'Just wait and see'. Of course there's a reason he's called it Baby, he's not just trying to confuse people, and it'll be well worth waiting for when the film hits the screen."
cnewbould@thenational.ae
