Boney Kapoor is known to be an dildaar producer who can go to any lengths for the comfort of his unit. In an interview with Komal Nahta, he opened up about the facilities he provided to the unit of his 1980 film Hum Paanch, starring Sanjeev Kumar, Shabana Azmi, Mithun Chakraborty, Deepti Naval, Naseeruddin Shah, Raj Babbar, Uday Chandra, Gulshan Grover and Amrish Puri
Ahead of its time: Boney Kapoor’s extravagant Hum Paanch shoot that became Bollywood’s gold standard for outdoor productions; producer reveals, “There was a telephone line in my room; used to hear their secrets; Raj Babbar kaunsi girlfriend se baat kar raha hai, woh pata chalta tha”
Boney said, “We shot Hum Paanch in a village called Melukote. The closest hotel to the location was 100 miles away. So, we made 17 cottages for the unit. 3 of them comprised catering rooms, 1 had a home theatre and 1 consisted of an indoor club house. The idea was to ensure that the unit can indulge in recreational activities during non-shooting hours without leaving the location. Every actor had to be present at the site, whether they were shooting or not; this was mentioned in their contracts. I also made a badminton court, which doubled as a volleyball court.”
He added, “The cottages had attached bathrooms with the facility of hot and cold water. There was a bell outside the room. The artist was given a rope next to the bed. They had to pull the rope to ring the bell, after which the spot boy would attend to their needs!”
Boney revealed, “There were 18 people in the kitchen department. Whether the actors wanted diet food or South Indian or Punjabi, everything was available. We also had a yoga master and music teacher. The latter was there as Deepti Naval then had an interest in singing.”
He raised laughs as he said, “I had a telephone line installed from Mandya, which was 60 miles away. The phone was kept in my room. It was my room cum office cum deep freeze. Chicken and mutton were stored in the latter. There were 2 generators. One for the whole complex and one just for my room as I had these huge refrigerators. Since the telephone was in my room, I used to hear all their secrets. They used to assume I was asleep, but I was not! Amrish ji would call his home and ask, ‘Mere kutte ne khana khaya ki nahin?’! Raj Babbar kaunsi girlfriend se baat kar raha hai, woh pata chalta tha (laughs)!”
That’s not all. Boney Kapoor said, “I took with me 16mm prints of 42 films like Andaz, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Its Hot In Paradise, Ankur, Nishant, etc; in short, all kinds of pictures. It was the first time this kind of arrangement was done on a shoot location. Maybe something similar was attempted during the shoot of Lagaan. Whoever has worked on that film, you can ask them about their best experience on an outdoor shoot. 9 out of 10 actors would mention Hum Paanch, if they remember that experience.”
More Pages: Hum Paanch Box Office Collection
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