On the set: Shab

Film: Shab

Director: Onir

Producer: Anticlock films

Cast: Raveena Tandon, Ashish Bisht, Arpita Pal and Sanjay Suri

Location: Diggin, Anand Lok, opposite Gargi College, New Delhi

Arpita Pal and Ashish Bisht share a romantic moment


Story
Shab is an intense love story set in Delhi with the fashion industry in the backdrop. Azfar (Ashish Bisht) comes from Uttarakhand to make his career in modeling. He meets Sonal (Raveena Tandon), the fashion diva, who falls in love with him. The twist is that he loves Raina (Arpita Pal), who works in a cafeteria. How this ménage a trois plays itself out forms the crux of the film.

Raveena Tandon and Ashish in an intense scene

What’s the scene?
Sonal comes to confront Raina, whom she thinks has taken Azfar away from her.  It’s a dramatic scene set in a cafeteria. It’s midnight and everything is shut in the vicinity of Gargi College, except Diggin restaurant. Vanity vans, generators and harsh lights blazing in the dark indicate we have reached the correct spot. Raveena Tandon is hungrily chomping on peanuts. She readily poses with the hotel staff when they ask for a photo op and then jokingly asks them to get her some food as she’s damn hungry. Director Onir explains the scene and later we see Raveena sitting on a table and observing a girl. The shot is Okayed in one take.

Onir discusses the proceedings with Arpita and Simon Frenay

Even with minimal makeup Raveena looks gorgeous in her black overcoat. She’s playing a rich socialite in the film. “I fall in love with this simple small town boy, who can’t even speak English properly and transform him into a successful model. Afterwards, she can’t digest the fact that he has feelings for someone else. My character has shades of grey and the challenge is to still make it likeable.” It’s the last day of the shoot and Onir reveals he’s going to miss Raveena. He adds that he first thought of making this film ten years ago. “I wrote it with Raveena and Sanjay Suri in mind. They were supposed to play the parts played by Arpita Pal and Ashish Bisht. Both Raveena and Sanjay are there in the film as a couple and I’m happy for that.”

Arpita and Simon

Onir first met Raveena during the making of Daman and they have been friends since then. “Working with Raveena is effortless. You are working with a friend who is a good actress. She fits the role so beautifully.”  He remembers Raveena used to take them all out on jeep rides in Assam during the making of Daman. “She used to drive uphill at full speed and then put off the lights. It was damn scary but she enjoyed such pranks. The other day we were shooting at Westin and she had to drive the car fast in foggy conditions and complained about that. I reminded her of Daman days and said you will be able to do it blindfolded.”

Onir explains the scene to Raveena

The next shot has Arpita serving coffee to the customers. Ashish observes her, their eyes meet, she looks away and there are tears in their eyes. A melodious song, Kis tarah main bataoon, ki adhura hoon main, sung by Arijit Singh and composed by Mithoon plays in the background. It’s an intense scene and gets Okayed after five retakes. Ashish, who makes his debut with the film, took up workshops with Adil Hussain and Tanishta Chaterjee to get his cues right. “I was not confident that I’ll be able to do Azfar’s role but Onir was confident about me. It’s a very serious and intense role.” He informs. 

Discussing the scene with Arpita and Ashish

Raveena says they kept pulling Ashish’s legs on the sets.  It’s been reported that Ashish has intimate scenes with Raveena and he confirms the news, “I have done intimate scenes with both Raveena and Arpita. I was nervous in the beginning because Raveena is a big star but she made me comfortable. I remember when I first faced her in front of the camera, I was extremely nervous. But ironically the scene required me to be nervous, so it worked in my favour.”

Onir is in deep thought

Onir reveals the film is called Shab because it’s shot mostly in the night. “When you first look at the night sky, you notice the dark but later you notice the million stars as well. The more you look at the characters in my film, you will discover more truths about them. Style wise too in the first frames you will see wide shots, and when the film reaches the end, it’s something else. It’s a film where I have given a lot of thought about presentation; there is reason for everything in the film, be it camera, clothes, colours.”