Kites shooting stalled Police raid Kites sets. Shooting stopped. 30 dancers did not have work permits

Kites shooting stalled Police raid Kites sets. Shooting stopped. 30 dancers did not have work permits

By Vickey Lalwani

Kangana Ranaut

Yesterday afternoon, the shoot of the Hrithik Roshan-Kangana Ranaut starrer Kites was stalled mid-way. The lead actors were shooting for a song sequence when suddenly a few policemen and a local NGO raided the film's sets as they didn't want 30 foreigners to be part of the song. The 30 dancers were asked to immediately leave the sets. As a result, the shooting of Kites came to a halt for almost three hours. This happened at Filmistan Studios, Goregaon West at 1 pm.

An industry insider said, "Rakesh Roshan (producer) and Anurag Basu (director) were taken aback when the film's sets was raided. It was a surprise security check. The raid revealed that 30 foreigners who were dancing in the background did not have a proper work permit.Those dancers were not allowed to continue shooting after the raid."

Hrithik Roshan

Did the shooting start again? "Yes, the shooting started but not before 3.30 pm. It took about three hours for Rakesh Roshan's production team to arrange for substitute dancers. This time, they got Indian dancers for the song. Only the foreigners who were dancing close to Hrithik had their work permit papers in place because of which they were not in trouble," said our source.

A source from FWICE (Federation of Western India Cine Employees) revealed why there was a raid on the sets of Kites.He said, "These things happen if the shooting has to be done urgently. But, FWICE has always believed that in Indian films, it is Indian artistes who should always be given preference over foreigners."

When contacted, Shammi, Production Controller for Kites, tried to cover-up the mess and said, "There wasn't much of a problem. Some local NGO had a problem with us having foreigners in the song. But I showed all their work permits to the NGO after which they left even before they came on our sets."

Explaining why he needed dancers of foreign origin, Shammi said, "I needed foreigners in the song as Hrithik and Kangana are shown to be in the US." 

Meanwhile, Rakesh Roshan said, "A man called Bunty Srivastava from a human rights association came on the sets and asked for certain papers. We had everything in place as I had taken official permission from the Federation and the Guild informing them that I needed foreigners for this particular shoot. I was not asked to make any changes."

However, Dinesh Chaturvedi, General Secretary, FWICE confirmed our story and said, "Yes, a local NGO and a few policemen did go to the sets of Kites and your information related to the incident is correct. But I don't want to say anything more on this."

A policeman records an FIR on the sets via:mumbaimirror