India West (USA) Apr 18, 1997
"After Karan Arjun, I wondered what story I was going to make into a film," recalls filmmaker Rakesh Roshan. He had to be cautious, he said, because he would have to think through what would work about a year and a half later, which is the typical gestation period for a film. He walked around with a watchful eye on what other filmmakers were up to.
"One day I was walking and this idea came to me," he said. "It would be an intense love story," he recalls. He chose the grim and gruesome socio-economic reality of the coalfields as the backdrop for the story.
Thus was born Koyla, the film about which Shah Rukh Khan says he was almost killed while shooting an intrepid scene for the film when he was set on fire for a stunt.
The film released in major cities across the United States on April 18.
Roshan chose Shah Rukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit for the lead roles - "I couldn't choose newcomers for such an intense film," says Roshan. Shah Rukh plays the role of a mute and Madhuri is an innocent village belle. The two fall in love but fail to express it before they are separated. Amrish Puri and Salim Ghouse play the villains, Amrish a cool, controlled possessive character and Salim the pure terror who leaves chaos in his wake. Johnny Lever provides the lighter moments. Rajesh Roshan composes the music to the lyrics by Javed Akhtar.
Rakesh Roshan has never been one to take shortcuts and to shoot the film he literally traversed the whole of India, ending up shooting in a remote part of Arunachal. "When we left Guwahati, we didn't know how long it would take," he said. After a 17-hour drive, they reached a remote outpost just two kilometres from the Chinese border. "The place is out of this world," he said.
The stunning visuals in the film testify to that: breathtaking views from mountain tops, a turquoise pool and shadowy mountains fading into the horizon, reminiscent of impressionistic Chinese watercolours.
The film was also shot in Jaipur, in the south in Ooty, in Hyderabad "in the hottest place in Andhra Pradesh, a place that not many people in Hyderabad know about," quips Shah Rukh.
The action scenes are no less sensational, says the filmmaker. There's a scene where a helicopter swoops down to almost catch Shah Rukh, a daredevil scene on the edge of a waterfall involving a vertical fall, Wild West-style stunts on moving trains, and of course, the climax.
The climax scene became a real-life climax as Shah Rukh tried to do a stunt with himself on fire and got burnt and almost suffocated, says Roshan.
A reticent Shah Rukh told Cine Blitz the whole story, "The shot has never been done before in India, I hear. I was set on fire from head to toe. Usually, people do such stunts with a face mask.
"I did it without. The shot was of Amrishji setting me on fire and fleeing the scene of the crime thinking I was dead. He gets on the train and then sees this fireball hurtling towards him.
"Even if you're wearing fireproof clothing when you get set on fire, there's a good chance the fire could burn through it. I had the water gel but that will protect you for about 15 seconds.
"The last time I did the scene I almost suffocated. When they set me on fire it enveloped me. The flames just shot up uncontrollably. I threw myself on the ground and all these people crowded around me, trying to put out the fire. They threw wet blankets but that didn't help either. The flames just came back stronger every time they did that.
"Meanwhile this boy who was helping the others put out the fire started to panic because he thought my face had caught fire too. He started spraying carbon dioxide in my face. I just stopped breathing and couldn't breathe at all.
"It was pretty scary. I narrowly escaped death that day.”
Fortunately, viewers can have both: They can feel the spine-chilling terror as they watch the film’s climax unfold, thankfully without narrowly escaping death themselves.
Publication title: India – West. San Leandro, Calif.: Apr 18, 1997. Vol. XXII, Iss. 23; pg. C23