Prabhas talks ‘Saaho’ and shawarmas during UAE shoot

Directed and written by Sujeeth Reddy, there were at least 250 crew members in Abu Dhabi capturing gravity-defying stunt scenes

South Indian actor Prabhas, who spent the last three weeks in Abu Dhabi filming his tri-lingual feature Saaho, will always remember this city for the gravity-defying stunts and car-crashes that they pulled off with style on the big-screen.

In a round table interaction with local journalists on Sunday afternoon, Prabhas revealed that more than 28 cars and five trucks crashed and burnt for the shoot. A few explosions were also thrown into the adrenaline-charged scenes.

“Kenny Bates [Hollywood stunt choreographer behind films such as Fast & The Furious] wanted to do everything live. We prepared a lot for them… What you see on screen will all be real … He wanted the cars to fly and we have done something new after a long time,” said Prabhas of Baahubali fame.

There’s very little computer graphics involved making it an authentic experience for the viewers, he added.

Directed and written by Sujeeth Reddy, there were at least 250 crew members stationed in Abu Dhabi to capture the gravity-defying stunt scenes.

But it wasn’t all work and no play for Prabhas, who took the time out to explore Abu Dhabi.

“I loved the shawarmas. It was amazing... I went to the museum and visited the mosque in Abu Dhabi too,” said Prabhas.

The actor, who’s known for his warrior role in the iconic Baahubali blockbuster series, described his latest film Saaho as an action thriller. While he wasn’t comfortable with revealing the plot, he claimed that he is sporting a leaner look in Saaho, also starring Shraddha Kapoor, Jackie Shroff and Neil Nitin Mukesh.

“You don’t have to look like a warrior in every role,” said Prabhas, who will soon begin filming for a love story set in Europe.

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After Arun Vijay, Malayalam actor Lal joins Prabhas’ Saaho

Prabhas’ Saaho is unarguably the most exciting multi-starrer Indian project on floors currently. Featuring an ensemble cast of Neil Nitin Mukesh, Shraddha Kapoor, Mandira Bedi, Jackie Shroff and Arun Vijay among others, the film is being directed by Sujeeth. The latest addition to this team is popular Malayalam actor Lal, who has been roped in to essay a pivotal role. Lal joined the sets of the film in Dubai over the weekend.

In an interview to Gulfnews, Prabhas spoke at length about the film and its many characters. He explained how the the film’s story was bigger than its characters, adding that the story will be told from Shraddha’s perspective. She won’t be playing just another heroine.

“All the characters in this film have an important role to play. The story is bigger than any of us and we are connected in different way. Each character doesn’t just come and go, because everyone has memorable parts to play. For instance, Shraddha doesn’t just come for a song, she play an important character. She’s one of the biggest assets and the story is narrated from her point of view,” Prabhas was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, the team recently shot an extensive action sequence in Abu Dhabi, where they’ve been shooting for over a month now.

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Prabhas opened up about the Dubai schedule of the film at a media interaction. “We had a plan and we went to action director Kenny Bates two years back. Kenny came to Abu Dhabi for recce and he loved the location. He wanted to shoot everything live. Almost 90% of whatever that we are going to show on screen is real. He wanted to show the real cars. He wanted the real cars to fly. We crashed around 27 cars and five trucks. We wanted everything real instead of going for CGI as it gives a real impact. Generally, you have 70% CG and 30% real but over here in Abu Dhabi, we opted for a more real shoot. This will be something that no one has seen before,” Prabhas was quoted by The Khaleej Times.

The film’s producer later clarified they actually crashed 37 cars.

On shooting in UAE, Prabhas had said in a statement: “We are all excited to be shooting in Abu Dhabi - friends in the industry have told me that it’s an incredible filming destination boasting awe-inspiring landscapes, and it is certainly living up to that reputation. I’ve been impressed at the level of support we’ve received from twofour54, the local crew, the fans, and the government, who are all going out of their way to make things as smooth as possible.”

At 50 days, and with more than 250 crew members, Saaho will be the second longest Indian movie to be produced in Abu Dhabi after Tiger Zinda Hai last year. It will also be one of the most dynamic - the large-scale action scenes are expected to take about 20 days to shoot. 

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Prabhas, Pooja Hegde's upcoming film will be Hindi-Telugu bilingual, predominantly shot in Europe

After the humongous success of Baahubali series, actor Prabhas is meticulously shaping up his career. The handsome hunk is aware of the fact that he is no longer a Telugu actor and his films have the potential to get a solid opening even in Hindi, Telugu, and Tamil cinema. 

Though Vamsi Krishna Reddy, Pramod Uppalapati and Vikram Reddy are the three important names behind UV Creations (producers of Saaho), Prabhas is said to be the silent partner in the production house and his involvement is apparently instrumental in attracting big investors.

As we all know, Prabhas’ Saaho is being made at a gargantuan budget of Rs 300 cr. Apart from their aggressive promotions in local Telugu market, UV Creations signed a deal with T Series for the distribution of the Hindi version of Saaho. Prabhas had instructed his team to rope in well-known Hindi actors for Saaho and as a result, Shraddha Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Mandira Bedi are playing pivotal roles in the film. 

Currently, team Saaho is busy shooting a high octane action sequence under the supervision of Kenny Bates of Transformers fame. “For the twenty days schedule, we have hired more than 50 imported bikes and cars. It will be one of its kind action sequence for Indian cinema standards. Nearly 250 stuntmen are working on this particular portion and a massive Rs 90 cr is being spent for the stunt portions of the film”, said a source close to team Saaho to Firstpost. 

Following Baahubali and Saaho, the new periodic romantic drama of Prabhas with director Radha Krishna Kumar will also be made as a Hindi-Telugu bilingual. Besides Saaho, UV Creations will be bankrolling the fictional period film which will be predominantly shot in Europe and the story is set in the pre-Independence era. 

The success of Baahubali has also changed the pre-production approach of films featuring Prabhas who wants his directors to conduct workshop session with the actors and spend more time before the shoot. 

Sources say Prabhas and other actors will be attending a special workshop session to understand their characters in this new film of Radha Krishna Kumar. As Prabhas is busy with the Abu Dhabi schedule of Saaho, Pooja Hegde will attend the workshop later this week in Mumbai. 

Prabhas will be seen playing the role of a palm reader in the film, the actor will shed a few kilos which he gained for Saaho and of course, there will be multiple stunning action sequences to please the hardcore fans of the actor. 

Pooja Hegde has been roped in to play the romantic interest of Prabhas in the Radha Krishna Kumar film. In a media interaction, Pooja said: “The most challenging character in my career would be the upcoming film with Prabhas”. The actress will also have intense action sequence and dance numbers along with Prabhas in the film. Radha Krishna Kumar is also in talks with the leading actors in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi to break the language barrier. 

“A grand set will be erected in India replicating the 19th-century village and the team has already started the research work in getting the require properties to get the authentic pre-Independence era look for the film. Even before the shoot, the director has locked the Telugu, Hindi, and Tamil dialogues. The major chunk of the film will be canned in Europe”, says a source close to the team. 

Prabhas is expected to complete the shoot of Saaho by the end of this month, he is likely to begin Radha Krishna Kumar’s film on 7 June.

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Prabhas reveals Saaho will be narrated from Shraddha Kapoor's point of view: She's one of film's biggest assets

Telugu superstar Prabhas is currently busy shooting for his upcoming film Saaho. Post the stupendous success of SS Rajamouli's magnum opus Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, Saaho is enjoying all the attention from both the film industry as well as the audiences worldwide. Fans are eagerly waiting to see what the Baahubali star has to offer now.

Speaking more about the film, Prabhas said, "All the characters in this film have an important role to play. The story is bigger than any of us and we are connected in a different way. Each character doesn’t just come and go, because everyone has memorable parts to play. For instance, Shraddha (Kapoor) doesn’t just come for a song, she plays an important character. She’s one of the biggest assets and the story is narrated from her point of view," reports Gulf News. 

The film is a trilingual (Hindi, Tamil and Telugu) and features a bevy of Bollywood actors including Shraddha, who also plays the female lead. Other actors — Neil Nitin Mukesh, Jackie Shroff, Tinnu Anand, Chunkey Pandey, Mahesh Manjrekar and Mandira Bedi — form the evil squad that Prabhas would be seen locking horns with, in the film. 

The action choreography of the film is being supervised by Kenny Bates, who has already amazed the audience with Hollywood hits like Transformers, Mission Impossible, Rush Hour and Armageddon. Directed by Sujeeth, Saaho is co-produced by UV Creations and Karan Johar's Dharma Productions.

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Saaho: Prabhas crashes 37 cars, SUVs and five trucks for an extensive action schedule in Abu Dhabi

The team of Prabhas’s upcoming trilingual action adventure Saaho, which is being directed by Sujeeth, has been stationed in Abu Dhabi over the last three weeks to shoot an extensive action sequence. Via a statement, the makers recently revealed that a whopping Rs. 90 crore is being spent on this particular action episode which is believed to be one of the highlights of the film. 

Under the supervision of international stuntman Kenny Bates, the team has been shooting over the last few weeks. Apparently, it has been learnt that 90 percent of what audiences will see from this schedule on screen will be real, including the crash scenes involving car and trucks. 

Prabhas has revealed interesting information about the ongoing schedule in a media interaction in UAE. He revealed that even before the release of Baahubali 2, Prabhas had signed Saaho and the team had met Kenny Bates to discuss how action scenes will be shot in the film. 

“We met Kenny two years ago. He suggested that we shoot everything live. Nearly 90 percent of what audiences will see on the screen will be real. He insisted that we use real cars in the chase sequences. Instead of CGI, he wanted real crashes. We crashed around 37 cars and five trucks. Since everything we shot is real, the impact is going to be out of this world. Usually, we have 70 percent CGI and 30 percent real for such action sequences but we opted for a more real shoot. The experience is going to be one of its kind and never seen before on Indian screens,” Prabhas told reporters in UAE.

After Salman Khan’s Tiger Zinda Hai, Saaho will be the second longest film to be shot in Abu Dhabi. Over 250 crew members are currently working on the project. On shooting in Dubai, Prabhas had said in a statement: “We are all excited to be shooting in Abu Dhabi – friends in the industry have told me that it’s an incredible filming destination boasting awe-inspiring landscapes, and it is certainly living up to that reputation. I’ve been impressed at the level of support we’ve received from twofour54, the local crew, the fans, and the government, who are all going out of their way to make things as smooth as possible. It will also be one of the most dynamic — the large-scale action scenes are expected to take about 20 days to shoot.” 

In an earlier chat with this writer, Saaho director Sujeeth said a major chunk of the film’s budget is being used on action scenes. “The scale on which it is being made, a major budget will be spent on some extravagant action scenes. Although it will be a commercial outing, we are attempting something new and I would like to keep that as a surprise element," Sujeeth had said. 

Also starring Neil Nitin Mukesh, Shraddha Kapoor, Arun Vijay, Jackie Shroff and Mandira Bedi among others, the film has music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy. Apart from Telugu, the film will also be released in Hindi and Tamil. 

Apparently, T-Series recently spent a whopping Rs. 120 crore to bag the Hindi theatrical rights of the film. "The universality of Saaho is what appealed to me as a filmmaker. While Prabhas is a pan India star, the content and its treatment will make for a film having a global appeal. It is an exciting collaboration and we are looking forward to present the film to our Hindi audience,” Bhushan Kumar of T-Series said in a statement.