The supernatural adventure thriller, Weight (2005), 19 years old on April 29th. It starred Ajay Devgn, Vivek Oberoi, John Abraham, Esha Deol and Lara Dutta and was backed by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions and Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment. The film was quite hot due to the casting, thriller zone and also because it contained the super hit song “Kaal Dhamaal”, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Malaika Arora. It was the fourth biggest opening film of the year, ahead of bigger films. Although the response has been mixed, the film remains memorable and continues to be watched.
19 Years of Kaal EXCLUSIVE: Soham Shah reveals that the Tigers underwent extensive training for three months and were flown from the US to Thailand; also says, “Yash Johar ji said to me, ‘You youngsters think you can script anything and do you think we will invest money?’ How are you going to show Tiger?’”
One of the most memorable scenes in the film was the actors’ encounter with three tigers. This was also the part of the film where Ajay Devgn plays a major role in the narrative. Interestingly, the film was shot with real tigers without any VFX. As Weight celebrated its 19th anniversary, which director Soham Shah spoke to exclusively Bollywood Hungama about that unforgettable sequence and how he had to go to insane lengths to get Tigers who could perform.
Soham Shah began by saying, “I have always been averse to using too much VFX. I believe that VFX should only be used where necessary. When VFX is used extensively, it breaks the connection with reality for the audience.”
He then traveled back in time and revealed: “I was too young when I wrote Weight. I never would have thought before writing this.Yes shoot must do too’ (laughs)! I was very naive. After reading the script, Karan Johar gave his nod to produce it. This script then landed on the table of Mr. Yash Johar, Karan Johar’s father. He was a very intelligent and experienced producer. He called me into his cabin. He slammed the script on the table and thundered: “You young people think you can write anything, come on!” And you think we’ll invest money and make your film?’ I understood that he was angry. I asked him, “What happened, sir?” He replied, “In 1952, Sunil Dutt Saab or Dev Anand Saab wanted permission to shoot in Jim Corbett National Park.” But the government never gave permission. Do you even know what it takes to get a permit? And how are you going to show Tiger?’.”
Soham added, “Yash ji then told me, ‘Go to Corbett National Park without my consent.’ If you get permission, I will make this film. I accepted the challenge and luckily everything worked out. Within 10 to 15 days, I managed to get approval after which Yash ji gave the green light to the project.”
Another challenge lay ahead of the director. “Then I made contacts and realized that in India it is actually not allowed to shoot tigers or other wild animals. I realized that I either had to show tigers through VFX or shoot them abroad. VFX was not developed back then and was very cheesy,” he said.
He continued: “I started researching trained tigers, but there weren’t any at the time. They were trained lions, but my film is about tigers. Also, there are no lions in Corbett Park.”
A Fardeen Khan film then gave Soham Shah a ray of hope. He revealed: “During my research, I found this out in the film Janasheen (2003), in one scene a tiger sat next to Feroz Khan. I decided to find out about them and my search took me to Thailand. The production manager took me to a petting zoo. But these tigers cannot perform. I was stuck again.”
Soham Shah then explained, “Finally I got in touch with the action director of gladiator (2000). He put me in touch with the tiger trainer who had trained tiger for this film. These tigers then trained extensively in the US for three months for the sequences we wanted to do. Logistically, transporting the unit to the USA was not possible; it would have been expensive. Even the jungles in the USA couldn’t have competed with those in India.”
He continued: “We finally brought these three tigers from the USA to Thailand. We also flew to Thailand and shot the sequence with these animals with the help of action director Allan Amin. It was scary and also an adventurous shoot.”
It must have been something special for a young director to have such a popular cast and such big names behind his film. Soham Shah agreed, “It was a dream come true that your first film was produced by Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar. We also had a fantastic star cast like Ajay Devgn, Vivek Oberoi who was at his peak and John Abraham after that Damned (2004).”
Weight remains trending on OTT platforms every now and then. At that time, the film caused a stir, especially among young people. Soham Shah smiled and said, “Even after 19 years, people still remember the film, especially the songs. The song “Kaal Dhamaal” gave the film a boost.”
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