Rahat Ali Khan duplicates Vijay Kashyap!

by Vidhya Krishnan

Jul 08, 2008, Bangalore

The snippet screamed – "Creative supervisor of Ratna Sinha's Babul Ka Angann Chootney Na got bald to act as duplicate of Vijay Kashyap as he didn't turn up."

My my, that is what we call true dedication and going that extra mile to make things happen. We admire such dedication. And, without oozing sarcasm, we also appreciate that this is the reason why 'Babul Ka Angann Chootney Na' is one of the top eyeball catchers.

An important shaadi sequence in Babul Ka Angann Chootney Na was being shot. And since Vijay couldn't make it, the shoot, contrary to being cancelled and having a loss of time and money, took off because the creative supervisor Rahat Ali Khan stepped in. He instantly shaved his head off for continuity sake.

Apparently the actual person who had to duplicate Vijay Kashyap didn't suit well. We agree that it's not a mean feat to duplicate somebody – more so, Vijay Kashyap.

So how did Rahat manage to make it happen?

We caught up with him to get an insight about the behind the scenes and he said, "We were shooting for a big sequence and Vijay was not available. So we arranged a duplicate for him but he was not up to the mark though for duplicates it is only the back portion that is shot. Nobody else fit the slot. It is not easy to get dupes and for this one it was all the more difficult because people must be ready to go bald." He added, "Without a thought, I pitched in since my height, body structure and neck size match closely to that of Vijay's. And for that I had to shave my head off and got bald to play his duplicate. I am fortunate enough that I fit the bill."

"The entire unit was surprised the moment they saw me because they didn't expect it. And there was a lot of 'patting on the back'. I didn't for a moment, think otherwise because the medium is such that works on killer timelines and the stress levels are way too high. And, the creative team behind the show goes with the flow.

A little embarrassed by the 'wah wah's that he's been getting, he says, "It's all part of the work. Anybody will do it!" We tend to disagree…we've yet to see another production house come to us with a snippet like this! Kudos to Rahat for the timely help!