Mumbai, June 30 (IANS) English actor Paul Blackthorne is sharing his fondest memories from the sets of the iconic film ‘Lagaan’. The actor spoke with IANS during the celebrations of the film’s 25th anniversary in Mumbai, and shed light on the biggest cultural shock while shooting for the film in India.
Paul essayed the role of Captain Andrew Russell in the film, who proposes the waiver of taxes if the villagers’ team manages to win the test match against the English players.
The actor said that the biggest cultural shock for the international actors in the crew was the non-availability of alcohol in Bhuj as Gujarat is a dry state.
He told IANS, “I think the biggest cultural shock for British people on the sets was like, ‘Where is the alcohol’ given Gujarat is a dry state. We would line up to source alcohol from different places on Saturday night for the celebrations. The environment was very hostile in terms of heat, it was very dry”.
When he was told about Aamir Khan missing his bus once during the shoot, he said, “I honestly don’t remember Aamir missing the bus. I am sure he had a very good reason for the same because being the producer and not reporting for the shoot on time, I’m sure he must be occupied by something”.
“We used to get on the bus at 7:00 a.m. and get under the blanket because it was too cold. It was about 1 hour of drive from our accommodation and once on the sets, we used to get good breakfast including the chai”, he added.
‘Lagaan’ clashed swords with ‘Gadar: Ek Prem Katha’, and still emerged as one of Indian cinema’s biggest hits. It marked a rare occasion where two potboilers registered good box-office collections despite the clash.
–IANS
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