Himesh flees from Nairobi...

Himesh flees from Nairobi...




The unit of Satish Kaushik's Karzzzz came into a bit of serious scare when political unrest and widespread riot broke out in one of the film's primary locations in Kenya. The location has now been shifted to South Africa.

Says Himesh, "I really don't know what happened. But the producer Bhushan Kumar and director Satish Kaushik heard the news there was widespread political unrest in Kenya.

So they decided to shift the location for Karzzz from Kenya to South Africa. Now we're shooting on Johannesberg."

Adds Satish Kaushik, "I was very keen to shoot Karzzz in Nairobi. But there's so turmoil right across Kenya! I also wanted to shoot some key action scenes with Himesh involving aircrafts in Mombasa which is such a beautiful place.

But we quickly had to shift location because riots broke out days before we were supposed to start shootin. So we've shifted the action scenes to Cape Town."

Currently Himesh is shooting at the posh casino at the Emperor Palace in Johannesberg until 21 February.

Says Satish, "We shot two lavish songs in this location with Himesh, his leading lady Sheweta and Raj Babbar. The first song was a party song Mashallah tera chehra when Himesh sees Shweta for the first time.

We shot with a group of ballroom dancers from a well-known troupe in South Africa. The second song Rab kare main mar javan was a romantic duet with Himesh and Shweta with fifty hip-hop and cabaret dancers.

I'm now shooting a background song Dhoom tere ishq ki."

Satish gives glowing marks to Indra Kumar's daughter who stars opposite Himesh. "I had auditioned her before signing her.She's got what it takes.

I should know because I've in the past introduced Tabu in Prem, Bhumika Chawla in Tere Naam and, Sheena Shahabadi in my forthcoming Tere Sang. So I guess I'm qualified to recognize talent."

Satish promises that the songs in his Karzzz would be on a scale we've seen in Subhash Ghai's Karz. "But let me make it clear Himesh and I aren't trying to compete with Rishi Kapoor and Subhash Ghai. This is our homage to the earlier Karz."