For most of us school life makes
for the best years of our lives. These memories are something we always cherish
and hold close to our hearts. Especially the PT classes, where we got the
opportunity to blow off some steam and play some games under the sun, which was
honestly a much-needed break. Actors later and students first, which is why the
cast of Chhalaang got extremely nostalgic on the film’s sets. Here is
what the cast and director had to share about what they were like back in the
day, in their PT class and their rapport with their PT teachers.
Reminiscing the fond memories
with his PT teacher, filmmaker Hansal Mehta shares, “My PT teacher was a guy
called Lenny Gonsalves. He was there before I joined the school and much after
I left school. He was still there when my kids were ready to go to school. He
died a few years back. I remember Lenny used to have a ruler, he would tell
everybody to take their palms out and he would run to hit everybody on their
palms because nobody would take PT seriously. “I will give you one Phaat!” that
was his line. I recall, he would tell us to take three rounds of the school
ground and for three years I used to give him a letter from a doctor saying I
have appendicitis. Since I was from a family of doctors, I forged one letter
and did not do sports for three years. Somewhere, this film reminds me that if
I had taken that running seriously, I would have been a little more fit.”
Nushrratt Bharuccha, the lead
actor of Chhalaang, too shares similar emotions. She discloses not being
a sports person during her school days and hated being out in the sun. In fact,
the Pyaar Ka Punchnama actress shares an embarrassing tale. She says,
“In every single sports day activity, I would just sit in one corner and
pretend I was not well because my teacher would ask us to do sports in the
scorching heat which was something I was never fond of. I remember once a
teacher asked me to run in a race and in return, she promised me to give treat
at Mc Donald’s. So that is the only race I participated in. I feel ashamed of
talking about it as it was a needle and thread race. I was supposed to run to
the other end, where another person was standing with a needle and a piece of
thread in hand. I had to thread the needle and run back to my point. The funniest
part is that I could not even come first in that race, I came second.”
Rajkummar Rao, on the other hand
was quite the opposite. He loved sports as a kid and never missed an
opportunity to go out and play. The actor quips, “I shared a great rapport with
my PT teachers because I was good at sports and I always participated in
different kinds of sports. My teachers really took care of me and they always
pushed me strive harder and to aim for higher things.”
Directed by Hansal Mehta, Chhalaang
is a Luv Films production and is presented by Gulshan Kumar & Bhushan
Kumar. Produced by Ajay Devgn, Luv Ranjan, Ankur Garg the film stars
versatile actor Rajkummar Rao & Nushrratt Bharuccha in lead roles along
with Saurabh Shukla, Satish Kaushik, Zeeshan Ayyub, Ila Arun and Jatin
Sarna in pivotal roles.
Amazon Original Movie Chhalaang is releasing this Diwali on 13th
November only on Amazon Prime Video’s as a part of the festive line up for The
Great Indian Festival. Prime members in India and across 200 countries and
territories can stream the global premiere exclusively on Amazon Prime
Video.