Editor's Pick

#ThrowbackThursday: Barfi turns 7 ‘When Anurag Basu bribed Ranbir Kapoor to shoot on Holi’

Barfi Turns 7: Here are a few interesting things about the film we bet you didn’t know 


Barfi is one of the finest work of Ranbir Kapoor, Anurag Basu, and Priyanka Chopra this decade. The movie recently completed 7 successful years in Bollywood.  It was nominated as the official entry of Indian film in the “Best foreign language film” in the Oscars. Ranbir’s movie also won 7 awards at the 58th Filmfare awards including best actor, best film, and best director. It had collected more than 100 crores. Barfi turns 7. In that case, here a few interesting facts about the film!

It has been more than 7 years since the movie released and we are here with some interesting facts about the Barfi which will make you make you fall in love with the characters all over again 

1. If you are thinking Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra  Jonas went to workshops for playing their challenging roles. You are wrong! They were totally chilled out on the sets. Yes, a little practice was involved before facing the camera.

Read more: #ThrowbackThursday: How banker Parineeti Chopra made her career into acting?

2. Some portions of the successful movie were shot in a small town, Pollachi in Coimbatore.  The crew had to stay at a shady hotel and the actors were staying at a five-star hotel in Coimbatore.  Both Kapoor and Chopra refused to stay there and decided to stay with the crew. The crew had to clean the rooms themselves to keep it clean for the actors.

3. The whole-unit enjoyed regular ‘Adda Session’ and played cricket before shooting.

4. Director Anurag Basu used the Guerilla style shooting many times. A guerilla-style shooting is when a shot is done by using simple props or skeleton crew due to low budget.  Scenes are often shot in real locations without acquiring the filming permits or without giving a filming warning. One such scene was shot in the flower market near the Howrah Bridge in Kolkata. During the morning, the area is mostly choc-a-bloc and Ranbir had to walk through for the scene along with PC. They walked 50-60 meters but then they were recognized by the crowd.

5 Well, this is something interesting. The cast and crew don’t have the memory of the scenes that were shot on Holi. Anurag Basu revealed that none of the crew members was ready to work on Holi, so he had to bribe ‘Bhang’ to them. Director arranged Bhang for everyone on the sets which was to be consumed after the shoot. ‘Bhang’ was already kept on the sets.  Ranbir Kapoor along with the cameraman and director himself got sloshed. They delivered the shot despite being high on ‘Bhang’. This particular scene is in the movie where Ranbir is in jail and Ileana is talking to Saurabh Shukla about his bail. The director of the film and “Barfi” drove back to home in a trance after shooting.  Later, when the duo checked the scene if they were shot properly or not, they felt relieved that things went fine. The ‘Bhang’ incident happened in Film City, Mumbai.

Barfi turns 7 and we are feeling nostalgic

6. When the trolley shot was being shot in Darjeeling, Priyanka’s trolley which was supposed to stop just before when the running train passes by. The time management went wrong and the trolley wasn’t stopping, Priyanka started shouting. The director and of his assistant directors had to literally lie down on the track to stop the train.

7. Priyanka Chopra met Razia to know her character better but Ranbir Kapoor never got to meet Mortaza.

8. The Barfi character was written keeping Ranbir in his mind. Priyanka was brought later as the director thought that nobody could have played “Jhilmil” better than Priyanka Jonas. Ilena was chosen for Shruti’s role out of gut feeling for the innocence on her face. However, Ilena had a bold image in the South Indian films before this.

9. The story of Barfi originated from the two kids of NGO. The director witnessed extraordinary friendships between two kids of the NGO Razia and the peon Mortaza. Anurag observed that only Mortaza could control the fits of Razia. He enjoyed the conversations of the duo.

10. Basu thinks himself of a self-critical person. After watching the ‘Barfi’ a few weeks later, he found out that there were few mistakes in the movie. The kidnapping angle could have been executed better as the existing one stops the narrative of the film on many occasions.

11 The leading female actress of the movie Priyanka Chopra and Ileana D’Cruz message Anurag every year on the anniversary of the movie.  However, Basu says that he and Kapoor remember the film’s anniversary.

Have a news story, an interesting write-up or simply a suggestion? Write to us at info@oneworldnews.com

Back to top button