It took Ranbir Kapoor 70 takes to fall from the chair correctly in Saawariya: ‘My back really broke’

Actor Ranbir Kapoor made his debut in the Hindi film industry with filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya in 2007. In his interviews, he admitted that the film’s set became a school for him, and he learnt many things from Bhansali. One of those was not being shy in giving several takes because in Saawariya he gave 70 takes just for one shot.
In an earlier interview with Film Companion, Ranbir had shared that Bhansali is a director who would not settle in anything less than 45 takes for a scene, even if it just requires an actor to turn his head. He recalled how while shooting for the ‘towel-song’, “Jab Se Tera Naina” he had to fall from the chair 70 times before Bhansali got that perfect shot.

Ranbir narrated, “There was a shot in this so-called ‘towel song’ Jab Se Tere Naina, where I had to roll back on this chair and fall down and the towel had to fall in a certain way with my leg showing and there was one shot where I was lying down laughing and I had to get up and sing a song. He’s very particular about what beat you catch, he’s a very musical director – you fall on this beat, you lift your head here, you laugh here – everything is musical. I did 45 or 50 takes one day and my back really broke. So, he was all sympathetic and said ‘I will manage’.”
But the next day, Ranbir was again doing the same shot. “The next morning when I came back, he said, ‘No, I’ve not got it’ and I had to do another 70 takes,” the actor shared. However, giving so many takes for one shot made Ranbir patient enough to give as many takes as a director requires of him.

Ranbir also credits Bhansali for learning the value of ‘sacrifice’ in life. He said, “He instiled this value in me that you need to sacrifice a certain personal life, fun or something that stardom will give you because it will take away from certain believability and empathy that you will feel for your character. It may sound strange, but that sacrifice holds a great value in my life.”
Saawariya also marked the Bollywood debut of Sonam Kapoor. The film also starred Rani Mukerji and Salman Khan.