So UTV the producers of the new much talked-about under-production film Burfi, realized when their crucial first stint of shooting in Mumbai ground to a halt, albeit sportingly, on the insistence of the principal cast Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra and the self-confessed cricket fanatic, director Anurag Basu.
Simply put the team refused to shoot on the day when one of the most important cricket matches were being played. In fact Anurag Basu who was manoevring some truly tense sequences between his lead pair, went even further. He persuaded the shooting to be cancelled on Wednesday, decided to fly down to Mohali for one day, and flew back in time to resume shooting on Thursday.
Says a source very close to the unit, "It was Anurag who triggered off this whole cricket fever during the first spell off Burfi.
The first thing he wanted to know when the schedule started was if the television in his van worked, since he didn't want to miss any of the World Cup matches. This kind of engineered a cricket fever in Ranbir and Priyanka too.
They too made sure their television sets were on the play mode.Every time a shot finished Anurag, Ranbir and Priyanka fled to their vans to catch the matches. We don't know how they did those emotionally-charged scenes when they had cricket on their minds."
Finally when the Indo-Pak match approached Basu put his foot down. He announced he just couldn't shoot on Wednesday when the world and its favourite cricket commentator would be watching the match.
When contacted Siddharth Roy Kapoor of UTV confirms, "Anurag will be in Mohali for the match.So the whole unit will be free to enjoy the proceedings."