Over the course of his decades-long film career, veteran action director Sham Kaushal has created a number of high-energy sequences. Sham, who is also the father of actor Vicky Kaushal, recently talked about how he almost had a heart attack while shooting with Shah Rukh Khan on Farah Khan‘s ‘
Om Shanti Om
’ in 2007, which featured a fire scene.
During a conversation with Friday Talkies, Sham was asked which scenes needed the greatest preparation and which were the most difficult. He revealed, “Honestly, bataun aisa easy toh kuch bhi nahi hota hai. Mai har din dara hua hin set pe jata hun ki sab tik se ho jaaye. (There’s nothing that’s easy. Every day, I go to the set with a sense of fear, hoping that everything goes smoothly).”
However, Sham noted that the ‘Om Shanti Om’
fire sequence
was very difficult. He described the sequence as being very demanding. With three cameras and 60 team members working inside, he explained that he and his team had to use
live fire
on set because VFX technology was not particularly advanced at the time.
In Hindi, Senior Kaushal revealed that they needed to be very careful about when to set the fire and when to put it out because even a one- or two-second lag may have been harmful. He went on to say that the four to five days of shooting, which was primarily conducted with live fire, were quite challenging. He also admitted that he cried in a corner after finishing the shoot. “These are the moments that kill you and you feel like you’re going to suffer a heart attack. I end up breaking down at times,” he shared.
Sham did, however, mention that Shah Rukh seemed much at ease about the shoot despite the tight circumstances and would say, “Paaji tension na le, main aisa nikal jaunga (Paaji, don’t be tensed. I will come out like this).”
Sham Kaushal has been an
action director
for over 40 years. IKaushal has worked as an action director in films such as Gangs of Wasseypur, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, PK, Padmaavat, Sanju and several others.
