Abhishek Bachchan and his Players' leading lady Sonam Kapoor stepped in to ease off a tricky situation for their films' crew.
If not for the two, directors Abbas-Mustan may not have been able to film an important, pre-climax stunt sequence at the Wellington airport in New Zealand.
The sequence involving a flight almost landing on a speeding car required an absolutely clear runway and of course most of the airport had to be evacuated, due to security reasons. However, the crew members had a tough time acquiring permission from the airport authorities for it.
Says a source, "It was quite an elaborate sequence which could not have been possible without proper permissions. Even the pilots and the on-air crew were to be alerted. But the authorities kept the film's crew hanging for weeks. This even forced the directors to think of graphically completing the scene."
But, thanks to the two lead actors, there was respite for the production team. Without much hesitation, Abhishek and Sonam apparently went ahead and had a two-hour long argument with the authorities, almost leading to a fight, but made sure they came back with the required permissions.
Confirms director Abbas, "It's easy to rely on someone like Abhishek, because he figures things out for you. Though we had most of the permissions, he did rescue us from wasting time and helped with the nitty-gritty."
Interestingly the actors, who realised how essential the scene was for the film, were in no mood to compromise.
Adds the source, "A lot of time and money has been invested in the film and they just couldn't afford to lose out on that. It may have been easy for them, because actors have seen producers deal with permission issues in India all the time. All they had to do was to make sure the scene was shot safely and no one was hurt."
Says Abbas, "Very limited crew was allowed at the airport, so that became even tougher. But thankfully, the scene was shot without any glitches."
