Rani Mukherjee: New Bollywood Stunt Queen?

After the last of her ” Prostitute Trilogy” as Rani affectionately calls her role in Sawariya her forthcoming film is a fantasy family drama directed by Kunal Kohli. It requires her to do dangerous sequences flying in the air as an angel.

 

 

The film reportedly inspired by the classic drama Mary Poppins (1964) requires Rani’s character to play a nanny with magical powers who looks after the kids of Saif Ali Khan’s character, a business executive.

 

In it, Mary Poppins ,played by Julie Andrews, is a super-nanny who looks after the kids of a cold banker. She flies in with her umbrella whenever the children are in distress and proceeds to set things right for them using her extraordinary magical powers, before flying off again.

 

It was the flying around that she had to do as an angel that forced Rani to grapple with wires, harnesses and pulleys, equipment you would expect Hrithik Roshan and Akshay Kumar to be more comfortable with.

 

“Rani underwent many rehearsals and trials for the stunt scenes. We shot on many outdoor locations in Mumbai, at Film City and inside the Yash Raj studios. At every place, we took utmost precaution. It could have been very dangerous if Rani had slipped. Thankfully, she pulled it off without retakes,” said Kohli .

 

Another challenge for Rani was that she had to wear the same delicate angel ensemble, designed by Manish Malhotra, throughout the film.

 

Amisha Patel, also in the film, faced her own challenges. She had to learn Scuba diving for underwater sequences between her and Saif, presumably the masala part of the film.