The troubled production unit for Lamha has run into even more difficulty with the sudden disappearance of Bipasha Basu late on Saturday night. "We don't know what happened with Bipasha because she has told us nothing," says director Rahul Dholakia, "She seemed fine in the morning. Suddenly we heard she had left.
We can't understand what happened, and why she left suddenly when Friday onwards things were going smoothly. I also cannot understand how she managed to get back to the hotel from the location in Anant Naag, pack all her luggage and leave in fifteen minutes."
Shooting in Kashmir has been stopped several times through protests and this latest event must have further damaged the morale of the team. "They don't know what hit them," explained producer Bunty Walia, "The morale in our unit is low.
Sanjay Dutt who landed here to start work immediately is suddenly at a loose end. He's taking holidays right now." Originally, it had been planned to shoot the whole film in Kashmir but with the state once again in the grip of separatist unrest, this idea has been abandoned.
The actress clears the air about her abrupt departure, "We had agreed to shoot in Srinagar as we all wanted to capture the beauty and authenticity of the region but the situation got a little tricky.
The government and the Srinagar officials have been supportive and have helped us with permissions, security and hospitality but as is common in most places, even they couldn't help with the impact of fan following and crowd frenzy." The next schedule will not take place in Kulu-Manali next week.
However she doesn't like the implication that she fled Kashmir, "My departure wasn't abrupt. I tried for seven days and realised the risk taken wasn't helping as we hardly shot. It's got nothing to do with me being strong.
I am very strong but I understood it was impossible to continue there. At the same time, my family and friends were extremely worried about me. The only big scene we shot was on a day of curfew. Hence, post talking to my producer (Bunty Walia) and Sanju (Sanjay Dutt), I decided to leave for Mumbai."
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