’25 people nearly died’: Pankaj Kapur recalls harrowing open lift sequence from Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, says it got stuck mid-way to 26th floor | Bollywood News

Veteran actor Pankaj Kapur has revealed that a sequence in the 1983 cult classic film Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, filmed on an open lift at a construction site, was so risky to shoot that at one point during the filming, at least 25 lives were at stake when the lift halted midway while ascending to the 26th floor. Revisiting the making of the Kundan Shah classic, Pankaj Kapur recalled the dangers involved in filming the open lift sequence with him, Satish Shah, Neena Gupta and Satish Kaushik.

The actor said when Kundan took him to see the location, he “froze” as the open lift had sides which were merely 1-2 feet high and had a wire on top which would pull it up. “The three of us, me, Renu Saluja (the editor) and Kundan stood in that when they pulled us to the 25th floor. I almost died! When we came down, I told him the lift is too small to even place a camera on,” the actor said in an interview with Filmkopath.

He continued, “I saw a bigger crane with a lift which looked comparatively safe. So, eventually, what you see is a much larger lift being pulled up by the crane, in which two lighting people, one cameraperson, the five actors and Kundan himself were performing. The lift was going up and also rotating, to give a 360-degree view, and we were petrified!”

Pankaj Kapur recalled that once the shot was over, there was another scene where the team had to shoot some silhouettes on the 25th floor. The building owner’s son had informed the crew that the lift would go till 26th floor, after which they could take the stairs and come one floor down.

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The lift sequence from Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro. The lift sequence from Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro. (Photo: Filmkopath)

“What we didn’t realise was, we had overloaded the lift! I kept saying we are too many, but no one listened to me. Once we started to go up, the lift got stuck at the 7th or the 8th floor! There was panic, they couldn’t pull it up or put it down. Then the lift was moved closer to the building. I kept saying that people shouldn’t panic and step out calmly but nobody listened! We are fortunate there was no accident. Everyone just jumped! It wasn’t even that the lift had leveled– there was a gap between the platform and the building. Once we went up, the guy said the wire pulling the lift was tearing (because of the weight). We were fortunate we got saved, otherwise 20-25 of us would’ve fallen from the 7th or the 8th floor straight to the ground,” he added.

Festive offer

Pankaj Kapur said Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, which remains as one of the greatest Indian films of all times, was made with almost “no money” and recalled that the actors worked around the clock. “Everything that could go wrong went wrong during the making,” he said and listed, the cameras choking, the lights fusing, the generator conking off. You name and that problem happened. We were working 24 hours, which means that every actor would rest for an hour, come back and give his shot, because we knew we had to complete the film in a lot of constraints.  Kundan Shah was putting himself in a lot of trouble to complete the film and everybody was so committed to the project, that we were ready to do anything,” he added.

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