Aamir Khan learnt combat skills from NSG commando!

With Ghajini set to storm the theatres, here are a few lesser-known tidbits about the film.

We all know how Aamir Khan slogged to get the eight pack abs or that he helped Jiah Khan in her Urdu dialogues or he pulled his hamstring while shooting some stunts. But there are some little-known interesting facts that haven’t got much media attention. Here, we present them.

AAMIR LEARNT FROM BLACK CAT

Though there was the internationally renowned stunt director Peter Heines to direct the action sequences, Aamir and director A.R. Murugadoss thought it was also better to seek the expertise of a NSG commando. So, an ex-Black Cat commando (whose name has not been revealed) was roped in to guide Aamir in hand-to-hand combat. Aamir has a lot of fight scenes in the second half of the film.

CELEBRATING THE VILLAIN’S DEATH

South film industry has a very different way of working from Bollywood. Since the majority of the crew of ‘Ghajini’ was from South, they followed a ritual that’s quite common downsouth. On the day they shot the scene of the villain’s death in the film, they held a small celebration to mark the victory of good over evil. A cake was ordered and everyone including the actor who played the villain got to have a bite.

WHEN AAMIR SAT PILLION TO JIAH

There is a scene in the screenplay in which Jiah Khan rides a scooter and Aamir sits pillion. Now, the only trouble was that Jiah didn’t know how to drive a scooter. So she obviously learnt it for the scene. But just minutes before the scene was to be shot, Jiah became nervous and was not in a state to shoot. She wasn’t confident that she could drive a scooter properly. Seeing her jittery, Aamir sat down with her and talked with her and assured her that if anything went wrong, he would take control. It was only after this assurance Jiah got kicked up and rode the scooter with confidence.

TRYST WITH THE WILD

While shooting a song on Aamir and Asin in Namibia, the film’s crew had unexpected visitors in the wild animals that roamed around the Dead Pan area in the African country. Once a group of wild foxes turned up and kept staring curiously at the entire crew. The shooting was held up as long as the foxes stayed. On another occasion, the shooting was stalled when a herd of wildebeests (dark antelopes with long heads) passed nearby the shooting location and kicked up a lot of dust in the air.

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