BACKSTAGE PASS - Up, above the Burj Khalifa so high...

Cinematographer Kabir Lal, who made Aishwarya Rai look like a dream in Taal, chased Mahima Chaudhary through the sarson ka khets in Pardes and turned the audience teary-eyed as Shah Rukh Khan crooned Har ghadi badal rahi hai in Kal Ho Naa Ho has been waiting for another big-budget, larger-than-life entertainer for the last few years. So when he bumped into writer director Anees Bazmee at a party, he begged the director to give him a film like Singh Is King and No Entry.
Anees obliged by signing Kabir for the sequel of his 2007 hit, Welcome. This was 2013 and two years later, the DOP has wrapped up Welcome Back. “It's been the most thrill ing 24 months of my life as I got to film two of the most challenging sequences in my career. The first is the opening shot and second comes post the interval.Anees's brief was to make the Burj Khalifa look spectacular,“ reminisces Kabir, adding that producer Feroz Nadiadwala got permission to film on top of the world's tallest building and also under it. “I mounted a helicam on the window of the chopper and shot the opening sequence of Anil Kapoor and Nana Patekar as Manju Pandey and Uday Shetty walking out of the building, head held high."
READ: 'Welcome Back' to release in Christmas week
In Part 2, John Abraham and Shruti Haasan fall in love and face the wrath of the Middle Eastern don, Naseeruddin Shah. “This is the second sequence I was raving about earlier. We filmed inside the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi which passes for the don's haveli in the film," he reveals.“There were so many restrictions on our movements and we had to shoot the palace in parts. It was tedious! We would start lighting the set for a shot at 3am and were still at it eight hours later,“ he sighs tiredly at the memory.
To make it worse, the entire crew had to be inside the palace and there wasn't enough space for the camera to pan, so Kabir decided to shoot the scenes like the 1990-Hollywood, action-comedy film, Dick Tracy. “I imagined John as the simpleton who is trying to battle a united mob. Like the earlier film, one of my favourites, I kept the colour scheme bright and the costumes brighter," he laughs.
For latest Bollywood updates follow us on Twitter >>> @TOIEntertain
For the latest in Bollywood news, like us on Facebook >>> TOIEntertain
WATCH: A royal look for this Welcome Back wedding song - BT