Shootout At Lokhandwala Turns 11: Actors Relive ‘Ganpat Chal Daaru La’ Memories

Shootout at Lokhandwala (2007) was among those very few films that gave the bad boys of Bollywood a heroic image and director Apoorva Lakhia did quite a good job. The film’s screenplay was written by Sanjay Gupta. As the film, based on 1991 Lokhandwala complex shoot out , completes a decade of its release on May 25, actors Suniel Shetty, Rohit Roy, Shabbir Ahluwalia and Arbaaz Khan share their behind the scenes memories, and also what makes the movie so special for them, even today.

Suniel Shetty

I loved my character of Kaviraj Pandey. There are so many memories from this film that I can’t pick one but I must say that it is one of the films, which is closest to my heart and a character I love playing. It was Apoorv Lakhia’s best film and we need more films like this one — real, at the same time entertaining.

Rohit Roy

My most amazing memory is that one evening after pack up, when me and Sanjay Gupta headed out for a drink. He asked me what my reaction was to the day’s shoot. I said I was very unhappy with it and didn’t agree with what we had shot . I felt it didn’t go with the soul of the film and the song, which was a superhit according to me, would be wasted. He heard me out and my reasons, and then promptly called up the production head and cancelled the next day’s shoot. I was taken aback. Later he re-shot the entire song and the end result was Ganpat Chal Daaru La. It became an anthem even before the release.

Shabbir Ahluwalia

My favourite memory remains shooting the groovy gangster song ‘Ganpat Chal Daaru La’, because the boys went crazy rapping and grooving to the song on the top of a convertible double decker bus—I had never seen one before — and all the fun while filming transpired on the screen.

Arbaaz Khan

It was a good experience to be a part of a gangster film, based on real-life events and characters. I also enjoyed working with my childhood friend Sanjay Gupta. I played the character of Javed Sheikh, who is fearless and an expert in Urdu language. So, it was amazing to play this particular character and it will always remain very close to my heart. Seldom one gets to play a character, which strikes the right chord with the audience.