An exclusive new video of the ‘Saaho’ cast and director was released today, in which they discuss their experience of filming the highly anticipated Indian action thriller in Abu Dhabi. The cast and crew filmed at various locations across Abu Dhabi for 40 days, with the large-scale action scenes alone taking 20 days to shoot. Saaho opened in cinemas on August 29.
The video shows actors including Prabhas, Jackie Shroff and Neil Nitin Mukesh, and Director Sujeeth highlighting the reasons why they chose Abu Dhabi as a major filming location for the film.
Lead actor, Prabhas said: “We wanted to do one of the best action scenes in India. The DOP (Director of Photography) and Director came to Abu Dhabi and they liked the locations, so they thought they wanted to do it here.” He added that “twofour54 came in and helped us out a lot.”
“If you go to some other place in the world you definitely won’t find wide roads and skyscrapers always developing. To do action scenes like this you need a lot of preparation.” Talking about twofour54, he ended: “they supported us a lot.”
Sujeeth, Saaho’s Director said: “When I was thinking about shooting abroad, I didn’t think of any other options as a city, I had it clearly that I wanted to go to Abu Dhabi.”
The film was produced by UV Creations and T-Series and twofour54 provided a full range of production services such as location assistance, permits and equipment as well as catering, accommodation and transportation.
Commenting on this, Jackie Shroff, who plays Roy, said: “I think without the support of twofour54 it wouldn’t have happened for me. From the accommodation to locations. Whatever the infrastructure we had; they were very open.”
Both UV Creations and T-Series benefited from Abu Dhabi Film Commission’s 30% rebate on production spend in the UAE capital.
Talking about Abu Dhabi in general, Neil Nitin Mukesh, who plays Jai, said “Abu Dhabi is gorgeous, I’ve been to the Louvre, I’ve been to the Mosque, I’ve been to the Emirates Palace and a couple of beaches; beautiful places. And to top it all, I think the people are great.”
‘Saaho’ joins many other hit Indian films including ‘Bharat’, ‘Dishoom’ and ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ by choosing Abu Dhabi as the location for principal photography.