Director Prem Soni likens the making of his romantic drama Ishkq In Paris to waging a war.
Coming from anybody else, this would have sounded a tad dramatic. But when you have battled cancer of the gall bladder and survived the coldest winter in Europe, it’s justified.
“It’s been a tough, challenging journey. Every day, there was some obstacle or the other in our path and crisis management was the key,” said Soni in an interview with tabloid!.
On the first day of their shoot in France, it was snowing heavily and the train that they were shooting in broke down.
“We were 60 in a train racing to finish scenes. If we didn’t finish the scene on time, we would have been stranded there all night. February 2012 was the coldest winter in decades and we were stuck in the middle of it,” said Soni.
This is his second directorial venture after Sohail Khan’s Main Aur Mrs Khanna. He dubs his latest attempt as a “clean, family entertainer”
“Paris is said to be the romantic capital in the world but the film breaks that myth. It shows, you can find everything in Paris but love,” said Soni. He went with the story idea to Preity Zinta and the rest is history.
“Preity is the queen of rom-coms. She was always my first choice. But what I have discovered about her is that she’s a great human being. Who would delay the release of a film when I was struck with cancer? She said, ‘we started the journey together and let’s end it together’,” said Soni.
Ishkq In Paris was scheduled to release in November 2012 but was pushed to this Thursday due to his illness.
“We have come out of all of this stronger. Now all of that looks like a bad dream,” said Soni. Lending him support was his good mate Salman Khan, who makes a cameo in the film.
“He’s an integral part of the story. But let’s face it, having a superstar like him in a film attracts eyeballs. He has that incredible power,” said Soni. There’s another surprise package in the form of French actress Isabelle Adjani.
“She plays Ishkq’s mother and speaks fluent Hindi in the film. She has worked very hard and it shows on screen.”
