Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone's fire scene in Om Shanti Om had action director Sham Kaushal crying on set: ‘What if something happened'

Indian Express

6 days ago

The grand fire scene during the interval block of Farah Khan's 2007 blockbuster reincarnation saga Om Shanti Om is one of the most memorable action set pieces in the history of Hindi cinema. It had Shah Rukh Khan's character Om enter a huge film set on fire by Arjun Rampal's Mukesh in order to save his love interest, Deepika Padukone's Shantipriya.
While it was thrilling to watch on the big screen, the film's action director Sham Kaushal remembers it differently. He recently confessed that set in Mumbai's Film City was so risk-prone that it made him cry several times on set. 'There wasn't so much of VFX back in 2007. We had to light the fire on that set, where Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, three camerapersons, and 60 members of my unit were inside the set. So, there were around 100 people inside the set that was on fire,' Sham recalled.
On the podcast of Aman Aujla, Sham claimed that set piece in Om Shanti Om was one of the most 'testing' of his long, illustrious career. 'There were so many moments of stress because you also had to put off the fire within seconds of lighting it. If someone commits a mistake anywhere, it could be very disastrous. I swear by God, there were so many times I'd go to the side and cry. I felt I'd get a heart attack,' added Sham.
He added that he got so tense because the entire unit's trust was resting on him. He prayed to Lord Hanuman to keep all of them safe. Sham claimed he considers the members of the unit as his own kids. 'Humans have little control over both fire and water. I get a little scared every time I do a stunt with fire or water. No one should get hurt because nothing is beyond safety,' added Sham.
Sham revealed that the tricky area with fire stunts is the timing. They had to light up the set four to five times a day while filming, but also had to put it off within seconds. 'For example, in Dunki, there was a scene in which Vicky (Kaushal, son) had to run with him on fire. It's just a matter of few seconds. Those who extinguish the fire are more committed than those who light it. Even if they burn their hands, they don't step back because they know how grave their job is,' said Sham.
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While promoting his 2023 film Dunki, director Rajkumar Hirani also revealed Sham Kaushal was terribly stressed about the scene in which his team had to put his son Vicky Kaushal on fire, again during the interval block of the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer. Hirani said that Sham gets particularly worried as an action director while working with his family.