"Working with four children was really difficult; it was an absolutely new experience for me. I worked with one child in Fanaa, who was very good in the movie. This time there were four and all of them are pivotal characters in the movie," says Kohli.
Talking about the role of the children Kunal says, "There are four orphan children who have to stay with Saif for a particular reason and they hate him. So they want to take revenge on him and they are not happy with their lives. That is where Rani's character, an angel comes in to bring happiness and magic in their lives."
The director says that it was imperative for him to correctly capture the expression of the children and getting them to act. "Kids are very spontaneous and natural actors. That is why I had to tell my team to be extremely alert about every child's movement and expression because if you repeat a scene with them the spontaneity and charm is lost. I did rehearse scenes with them and also conducted workshops but not too much because I wanted the performances to be natural and spontaneous. The kids create magic in the film and I am so glad that my cameraman captured all those magical moments because you cannot get the kids to repeat expressions," he says.
Kunal says Saif, who himself has two children Sara and Ibrahim, as well as Rani Mukherji bonded very well with the children.
"The children liked Saif a lot; we all had a nice relationship. But because Saif and the kids do not get along in the film and so I did not let them spend too much time. Saif is a very friendly guy, he helped them out in a lot of scenes… Saif and Rani were very nice and co-operative towards the children," says Kohli in praise of his star cast, "Saif and Rani sweetly waited while I took the kids shots first. Adults can shoot for twelve hours but children can't because they get tired. Usually, the adult actors' scenes are shot first and then the scenes of the child actors are done. But here I wanted to shoot the children's scenes because I wanted to capture the freshness and spontaneity."
Most of the film is shot in Bangkok and Kunal tells us that the children did not have much problem shooting in Bangkok. "Though the film is set in Delhi and there is no Bangkok in the film, we had to shoot over there because we could not get a lavish house in Delhi itself. Most houses are privately owned and cannot be used for shooting. That is why we went to Bangkok," says the director.
Kunal says that every effort was made to ensure that the kids always made to feel at home. "The children would nap after lunch as they are used to sleeping at home. They were treated as they would be at home and we gave them milkshakes when they woke up. We treated the children very specially and made sure they were comfortable."
And all of them bonded so well that the last day of shooting was emotional for everyone.
"On the last day of shooting for the kids, the little Sardar boy started crying because it was his last day of shooting and he was sad to leave all of us. Seeing him everyone started crying because we had all become like a family and very attached. So that was emotional and something none of us will forget."
Debate Mansion
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