Rs 1.5 Crore Casino Set for ‘Double Dhamaal’

Mallika Sherawat’s sizzling item song ‘Jalebi Bai…’

and part of the climax of his forthcoming comedy made in association with Reliance Entertainment, ‘Double Dhamaal’, was filmed there.  

Though director Indra Kumar could have filmed the sequences in casinos in Goa or Macau, he didn’t think it would be feasible. “They would only let us shoot for a few hours in a day, and that too only at night. Since we required to shoot all day long, we had no option but to build this set,” says Thakeria.

Major parts of the film’s climax have been shot in Macau as well. It was the pictures that the production team clicked on their previous trips there that inspired the set design in Mumbai.  “Credit goes to art director Tanushree Sarkar for putting up such a brilliant set. Other actors and filmmakers would drop in to have a look around as they had heard a lot about it,” he says, adding that it is worth the Rs 1.5 crore it cost to make in just two weeks.

But he’s unperturbed about the expense, as he feels the song will go on to become a chartbuster. The already popular chart topper which also features Sanjay Dutt, Kangna Ranaut, Riteish Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi, Ashish Chowdhry and Jaaved Jaffery, has been composed by Anand Raj Anand and choreographed by Ganesh Acharya. 

The team became so attached to the casino that it broke their hearts to learn that after completing their 12-day shoot, the set would be dismantled. “We were telling each other that if we could manage a license, then the casino would continue to stand and actually function,” he says, laughing.  

Produced by Indra Kumar and Ashok Thakeria in association with Reliance Entertainment, ‘Double Dhamaal’ releases in UK and worldwide on 24th June.