Filmmaker Ashu Trikha and his team recently wrapped up a long schedule of their film, Koyelaanchal, in Jharkhand. The unit shot in remote places in Jharkhand with its cast headlined by Suniel Shetty and Vinod Khanna.
A crewmember says, `As soon as we started shooting, we had to follow a lot of rules as we were shooting in areas near the coalmines and Naxal strongholds. We had to cover our faces with masks so to not inhale coal dust. We also had to eat jaggery and chickpeas to purge the dust from our system.`
On one occasion, a crowd surged around the set and soon the situation spun out of control. A source says, `With inebriated people creating a ruckus, we had to pack up for a day. We returned to the set only to find broken props.`
Trikha confirms the story, and reveals that a stone was hurled at Vinod Khanna during the film's shoot. `In such areas, you can never tell who is a Naxalite and who isn't. During the shoot, someone threw a stone at Vinod (Khanna). Luckily, he ducked in time.
Undeterred by this incident, he continued shooting for the scene. The locals punished the miscreant on their own and we didn't have to get the police involved,` he says.
Trikha adds, `Many of the locals we hired worked in coalmines; they would be intoxicated all day and they'd not come on time for the shoot. Thankfully, we had security personnel in Ramgarh who helped us stick to our schedule.`
