South Asia Blog: Blue Hindi movie trivia

Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Lara Dutta and Katrina Kaif starrer Blue Hindi movie is coming this Diwali. Already, I wrote a post on B lue Hindi movie song download and other information. Here are some more interesting facts you would like to know about the movie:

Blue Hindi movie is directed by Anthony D'Souza. It is his first movie as a director. Anthony D’Souza came from ad making background. He even shot one episode of the popular TV series, “Ripley's Believe It Or Not.”
After Samraat and Aatank, Blue Hindi movie is the third under-water action thriller of Bollywood. It has under water scenes for around 20-25 minutes.
Blue Hindi movie is written by two American writers- Joshua Lurie and Bryan M. Sullivan.
Famous Australian pop singer, song writer and actress, Kylie Minogue, made a guest appearance in the movie. She performed an item song, ‘Chiggy Wiggy,’ with Akshay Kumar. Already the song has become very popular among the youth audience.
The music of Blue Hindi movie is composed by famous Indian music maestro, A.R. Rahman, who also composed the music of Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire.
Blue Hindi movie tells the story of a hidden treasure lying 250 feet below the Pacific Ocean guarded by sharks. Three friends- Aarav (Akshay Kumar), Sagar (Sanjay Dutt) and Sam (Zayed Khan)- try to get the treasure but one of them betrays the group.
Blue Hindi movie is one of the most expensive Bollywood movies ever made with a budget of Rs. 1.29 billion.
Famous Hollywood cinematographer, Pete Zuccarini, who worked in movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, Deep Blue Sea, was hired to shoot the underwater sequence.
James Bomalick, who choreographed the action sequences of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull, was hired to choreograph the action scenes of the movie.
Like it or not, Blue Hindi movie is inspired by Hollywood movies. So far, I found three movies that are related to Blue Hindi movie - Into the Blue (2005), starring Paul Walker and Jessica Alba; The Deep (1977) starring Robert Shaw, Jacqueline Bisset and Nick Nolte; and Torque (2004) starring Martin Henderson, Ice Cube and Monet Mazur. The story of Blue Hindi movie is related to the former two while the bike action sequences were taken from the later. Even Anthony D’Souza admitted that Blue Hindi movie is inspired by The Deep.
The shooting of Blue Hindi movie started in 2008. Majority of the shootings were done in Bangkok and the Bahamas. A small portion of the movie was shot in India in the beginning of 2009.
In the Bahamas, some of the underwater sequences of Blue Hindi movie were filmed around a real sunken ship. The crew shot the movie for sixty days in deep sea of the Bahamas. For fifteen days, the crew rehearsed and they shot the movie within forty five days.
The actors of Blue Hindi movie had to act while they were being surrounded by sharks. There were forty sharks including hammer-heads, reef sharks, great whites, manta rays and eels. Reef sharks are very gentle and easy to shoot with. The great white sharks, that are 15 to 18 feet long, are the most dangerous sharks. For Anthony D’Souza, shooting with the sharks were the scariest part. All the necessary precautions were taken. There were shark handlers who remained with the crew all the time. The producers also brought international action directors and choreographers for shooting as they had prior experience of shooting in that area.
While shooting under water, the actors were always surrounded by safety divers. They used to be at ten meters distance while scenes were being shot. There were twenty other under water crews.
The actors were specially instructed by the trainers not to keep long hair and not to color them blonde as sharks get attracted to white. The actors should not have any cuts on their bodies and if they had, it should be covered properly. If blood comes out from those cuts, it would attract the sharks.
In one of the action sequences of the movie, a ship was needed to be blasted. The shot was taking place fifty feet under the sea in the Bahamas. Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar and cameraman, Peter Zuccarini, were present at the spot and all the necessary safety precautions were taken. Sanjay Dutt was apprehensive about shooting the scene but he obliged. Unfortunately, Sanju was right and the explosion went wrong due to “peculiar water condition.” The crew were not prepared for the mishap at all. Thanks to Peter Zuccarini, his quick action saved both Akshay and Sanjay from getting seriously injured. This led Sanjay to blow of his fuse on the set.