White sand, red hot!

Ashutosh Gowarikar ordered 50 trucks of white sand from Jaipur for Jodha Akbar. (White sand fuels another problem, it's too damn hot to walk on!)

Ram Kamal Mukherjee

Reports are that Ashutosh Gowarikar has ordered nearly 50 trucks of white sand from Jaipur, just to recreate the effect of in Karjat, where they're shooting now. The director who has been shooting for his magnum opus Jodha Akbar at Nitin Desai's Studio in Karjat for the last one month, panicked when he realised that Mumbai soil was not a patch on Jaipur soil.

"He needed to take shots of animals and even the long shots would require detailed shots of the soil," says our source. Finally, Ashutosh decided to get trucks loaded with white sand from Jaipur to maintain continuity and not compromise on the production standards of his film. "The same type of sand from Jaipur was ordered so that the authenticity of the film was maintained. White sand is the speciality of Jaipur and they couldn't cheat audiences by using anything else. Finally, huge trucks full of white sands were imported from Jaipur and nearly 65 employees were asked to spread the sands all over," says our source. A good many lakhs of rupees were spent in this exercise though, even though exact figures are difficult to obtain.

This historical film is based on the life of Jodhabai and Mughal emperor Akbar. Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai play the lead roles. "The soil of Mumbai anyway absorbs heat which can get unbearable. But now these white sands are something that absorb even more heat during the summer. So, most of the actors are finding it difficult to give their shots. There are some scenes where character artistes are required to give shots barefoot since in those days, people used to walk without shoes. This is becoming a bit of a problem situation since most of the actors are professional and Ashutosh is making it sure that everyone is treated with equal comfort," says our source.

After all, Ashutosh wouldn't want to be a cruel master would he?