Always On Location

If Filmmaker Kabir Khan Sees a Mountain, He Wants Toclimb It and Shoot on Its Top. He Does Not Want Visualeffects to Bring That Mountain to Him

- Shreevatsa Nevatia

The Hindi film industry’s obsession with scenes that resemble picture-perfect postcards is well known. Switzerland, for instance, remains a favoured backdrop. Kabir Khan, however, likes his locations more grungy. Kabul Express, his first full-length feature film was shot in Afghanistan. Phantom took him to Lebanon, and the climax of Bajrangi Bhaijaan was shot at the base of Jammu and Kashmir’s Thajiwas glacier. The likes of Salman Khan willingly step into freezing lakes for Khan, but the empathetic director does give them deep sea diving suits before they take the plunge. Having travelled to over 70 countries as a documentary filmmaker, Khan knows the hacks that make difficult destinations navigable. Today, he travels to write. Being a Bollywood director, he confesses in this interview to NGTI, has fringe benefits.

Let’s start with a joke everyone knows about you. It is said that when you want to travel to a new destination, you write a script around it. Is this true?

[Laughs] My answer would have to be ‘yes’. If you’re writing a script that needs a particular setting, if your story can only unfold in that one place, you do have to fight your hardest to get there. New York could only be filmed in New York, and Kabul Express could only be made in Kabul. In Ek Tha Tiger, I needed Tiger and Zoya to run away to a place where people could not find them. That’s when my childhood fascination with Cuba came in. It was perfect because it was somewhat off the grid. We filmed there for a month. So when there’s a choice of location, I guess I do include places I have always wanted to go to.

So, locations, you’re hinting, are of paramount importance?