Rahul Dholakia On 15 Years Of His Film On Kashmir Militancy

Rahul, what are your recollections of shooting Lamhaa in Kashmir in the thick of militancy?
It was extremely tough shooting Lamhaa in Kashmir at that time. Because there was no government in power. It was pretty much the Governor’s rule. And with big stars like Sanju (Dutt) and Bipasha over there, it was nightmarish.

Please elaborate?
The first day I was shooting, we were held hostage by about eight to ten thousand people in the mandi, the entire unit. Everyone was locked up. I was locked up for about four hours. And they all wanted to see the footage from the film, which was impossible to give because, you know, we were shooting in film at that time, not video, not digital. And so what happened is, because they were unaware of the process of filmmaking, they held us hostage for four hours. I was in a room full of at least a thousand people. And there were about 10,000 others outside. No police, no CRPF, nobody would help us.

What a way to start?
So that was the first day of the shoot. And it went on like this. I had to shoot in the curfew one day with Bipasha. And it was the best shoot, actually, because there was no one outside. But that was dangerous. You know, you can’t do these things. We were shooting in the CRPF cantonment area, where there were a thousand policemen and all the CRPF chiefs were there and everything. And when you’re shooting a Bipasha scene, Bipasha had to get out of the car and go into a gate kind of thing. And the minute we started shooting, till then there was absolute silence. The minute we started shooting, one of the crowds started chanting, Hum kya chahte hain? And the other said, Azadi ka naam matlab kya? And there was chaos over there, and almost like a riot-like situation. And we had to cancel shoot. That was the second day.

And the third day?
Third day was in Anantnag, where we were shooting with Kunal. And it was in a university-controlled environment. Again, there were disruptions because of the fiery speech, which we had written for a character, went out of control. The local public thought it’s real. And the army came in over there, a curfew-like situation again. And in five minutes, we had to wrap everything and run.

More than anyone else, Sanjay Dutt’s presence must have caused a stir among with locals?
With Sanju, we were shooting in Makhdum Sab Dargah. And I had taken the crane up. And we had very little time because it was winter. And we had two hours to shoot the scene, two hours to set up. Because we had to take the crane from down the steps of the Dargah, where the Dargah is the top of the mountain, all the way up. There was a small scene between Bipasha and him. But we had to rush into that scene. Because the minute we went up, the Intelligence told us that, you know, you got to wrap fast because the guys are here to throw stones… They may just attack you because Sanju is there. So immediately, we had to wrap.

How can anyone shoot a film with so much tension all around?
So half the time, whenever we were shooting, we were constantly worrying about just finishing and going, finishing and going. Because it was a security threat to all the entire unit. And I couldn’t afford to do that. Like, once I was shooting, and the Lashkar guys were apparently on set because they were just roaming around. Or they had come to see what’s happening. I don’t know what, because I didn’t know them. But my friend was the reporter over there, Neil Raina, who was really helping us with the whole thing. Sanju was supposed to walk from one place to another. And Neil told me, Rahul, you got to take the shot. You got to meet someone. And I’m like, I can’t meet anybody. I’m shooting. He says it’s very important to meet. And I said, I’m not going to meet anybody right now. Let me just take Sanju’s shot and let’s go. Because there’s crowds, there’s police, there’s security. It was chaotic, you know. And he said that this guy throws the best grenade in Kashmir. Now, true or not true, right or wrong, I don’t know. But at that point of time, I have to attend to him also. So it was quite very, very scary over there. There was that one time, a terror outfit apparently was going to send some fifty girls to paint my face black because of some stupid headline which had come in the newspaper saying that Bipasha was resembling one of the women in that terror outfit. And there was a picture of a bikini or some nonsense like that. The atmosphere, the mahaul was horrible and very stressful, very tense. We could be attacked at any given stage. We had to run, we had to shoot, we had to hide. We had to actually be in the middle of a war zone, kind of a thing. It’s in those conditions and situations we’ve shot Lamhaa.

The actors must have been scared?
It was very brave of both Bipasha and Sanju to be there and help me film it. Even Anupam Kher Saab was there. Actually, we had to shoot his scene where he’s coming out of Jama Masjid in exactly three minutes and one take. Because you never know what’s going to happen next. And that was downtown Srinagar, where the Jama Masjid is. We shot the largest Jumme ki Namaz over there. And the night before, the one before Eid, it was thousands and thousands of people in there. It was cinematic, yes, but anything could have happened at that stage. So, yeah, it was extremely tough and impossible to shoot, but we did it.

Bipasha Basu didn’t look anything like a Kashmiri?
Did she look a conventional Kashmiri girl? No. I had met dark Kashmiris, so I thought people would overlook the skin tone. But the Kashmiris didn’t. I can understand criticism for that. But in our defence, we did approach another actress who looked the part, but she refused to shoot in the Valley. I wanted to shoot in Kashmir. It was very dangerous and only Bips was bold enough to take the job up. She was athletic, spoke good Hindi and she is beautiful and also an actress who could play the part, so based on all those merits, she got the part.

The failure of Lamhaa must have disappointed you?
Well, Lamhaa is not a very successful film, so I guess it will always be talked less and less about. The filming was also very harrowing, and we were constantly at threat, so we did not get the right space to film it. The film industry went through a crisis and our budgets were cut. Sets were demolished barely after starting shoot. Big action sequences had to be contained. It was a very tough film on all fronts, we were always challenged! Not a good way to make a movie! But I have many good memories of the film as well as stories that I can tell for the rest of my life, life-threatening experiences that will always stay with me. And some very good songs!

Given the situation post the Pahalgam carnage, do you think you could shoot Lamhaa in Kashmir today?
That is a loaded question! The mood of the country is jingoistic. That’s the type of films we are making. So obviously a film like Lamhaa, which questions all angles of the crisis, won’t work, or won’t be made. We did walk the thin line, made some bold claims – talked about kashmiriat – and their pride – war and peace -so though films will be made in Kashmir and on Kashmir, the phase when we filmed and the type of story telling we tried, may not happen.

Why do you think Lamhaa didn’t get an audience?
No Lamhaa didn’t get the audience in the Cinemas. I think there are many reasons. The storytelling didn’t quite work, it was shot trying to recreate the madness in the Valley at that time and so the camera was purposefully made shaky. The audience thought it was too much to watch. The action pieces should have been bigger. They were truncated because of budgets and location. The narrative felt choppy. The subject was not what the public wanted to see. Marketing and promotions were very weak because of the dispute with producers/ bank / distributors and exhibitors. Everyone disowned it once their interest was over Also, ⁠many good films were released the same day: Inception, Udaan, Tere bin Laden. Not many were interested in seeing our film.