by Subhash K Jha

Cinevista Studios, Powai, Mumbai...It's deathly on the sets of debutant director Nisha Chianani's Maratthon (spelt with 2 t's, if you please!).

And not surprisingly so. This is meant to be the cancer ward for the film, being produced by Vicky Tejwani, Kailassh Raj Gandhi and Gurpal Singh of Matrix Medias.

The hero, a sportsman, Sanjeev Malhotra (Sammir Dattani) has just had his leg amputated.

The special effects by Victor Bannerjee's daughter Keya is so real, it's scary.

"I know," whispers Sammir. "When I saw myself on the video monitor I said , 'Shit, that looks too real...as though I've really lost a leg...Being an actor I guess I need to prepare myself to feel all kinds of emotions."

You can almost smell the antispectic in the hospital as Chainani sets up the first shot for the film.

It's a very touching tender interaction between a terminally ill 5-year old boy named Shah Rukh and Sanjeev.

The boy walks up to the numbed hero's bed and introduces himself. "I'm Shah Rukh Khan."

"And I'm Amitabh Bachchan," Sanjeev says sarcastically.

Within minutes the two boys become friends and Shah Rukh says, "My mom says I'm going to die...That means when I go to sleep and I wake up, all the pain will be gone and I'll be able to play just like all the other kids."

The glycerine is forgotten. Tears well up naturally in Sammir's eyes. The director is very impressed with her hero as he goes through some grueling emotional scenes throughout the day.

By the end of Day 1 , Sammir and little Ayush who plays Shah Rukh are pals, with the former giving the child his lines and cues.

"I remember how lost I used to be while doing ads at the age of 7. Every time Shah Rukh looks at his mom vacantly I remember how as a child I used to forget my lines and look helplessly at my mother. It's so important for the senior experienced actor to help the junior. I've just shot in Hyderabad for Mani Shankar's film with Suniel Shetty. He was so encouraging."

Day 2 of the shooting has emotional scenes between Sammir and his screen-father Mohan Bhandari. The dad has to gently tell his sportman son that his leg has to be amputated.

By now Sammir needs no prompting to cry. "Normally tears don't come easily to me. But in this case I find myself breaking into tears throughout. It's bound to be an emotionally moving experience for the audience as well."