Umesh Mehra reveals Sunny Deol’s TOUGH time shooting in Russia for Sohni Mahiwal as a vegetarian: “He survived on fruit, bread, butter, milk; NEVER complained”; recalls Hema Malini finding MEAT in her ‘vegetarian’ soup
Umesh Mehra had a fascinating conversation with Kiran Juneja on DD Urdu’s chat show Guftgoo about his memorable films and a lot more. He opened up about making Indo-Russian co-productions like Alibaba Aur 40 Chor (1980) and Sohni Mahiwal (1984) and shooting for these films in Russia.
Umesh Mehra said, “The biggest issue that Indians face in such countries is food! It was extremely cold aur hum logon ko bina garam khaane ke chalta nahin. Over there, the locals would usually eat bread, meat and cheese. We used to have fried eggs and bread. But it was so cold that by the time the fried egg went from the frying pan onto our plate, it would already be cold. And it’s no fun having thanda anda (laughs)! It was quite a torture. Later, we started flying our own cook in from India.”
He then talked about the Sohni Mahiwal leading actor, “For Sunny Deol, it was even more difficult as he was a vegetarian. He used to only have fruit, bread, butter and milk. That’s it. But hats off to him. He never complained about it.”
Later, he shared a hilarious incident from the shoot of Alibaba Aur 40 Chor. Umesh Mehra said, “Hema Malini ji is also a strict vegetarian. We were having dinner at the hotel restaurant and all of us decided to have soup, which was quite delicious. Hema ji specifically told the waiter, ‘I am a vegetarian. There should not be any meat in my soup.’ The waiter assured her, ‘No problem.’”
Umesh Mehra continued, “After some time, the soup was served. Hema ji was stirring it when she spotted a small piece of meat. She got angry and told the waiter, ‘I told you I am a vegetarian!’ Ab unki thinking dekho. He replied, ‘Ma’am, we removed each and every piece of meat from the soup. Itna sa tukda reh gaya. Ab kyun naaraaz ho rahe ho?’ (laughs)! So, the very concept of vegetarian food just didn’t exist there.”
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