The first time I visited Istanbul, I went backpacking straight after I finished college. I've always felt that Prague and Istanbul are two of the most beautiful cities on the planet. All that separates Istanbul from Asia is a 300-metre bridge, so it has a lifestyle and architecture that's European and Asian. So it has a conservative block but parts of it are even more liberal than Bombay!"
Seventh character
"I chose to shoot in Turkey because I needed a liberal Muslim country - my film Mission Istaanbul, basically deals with a reporter's journey into terrorism. Istanbul is young, full of rich men with yachts and has a fantastic nightlife. Bodrum looks like pockets of Greece where people come for their summer holidays. There are exclusive clubs that can only be reached by boat. You come in and there's parking for your boat! So in several ways Istanbul, with its narrow cobbled streets, was the seventh character in my film.
"Mr Bachchan once told me, 'When you go to a place, don't put that down and never put down your country in that place.' It was an important lesson I learnt. So Istanbul is shown in a good light - Viveik Oberoi and Sunil Shetty both play Turkish men. The Turkish have zero tolerance for violence and terror. I incorporated that different culture. So Mission Istaanbul isn't shot in that grungy street feel of Shootout at Lokhandwala. It's glamourously shot."
On a recce roll
"I made seven recces (trips to check out a location) before shooting there. Obviously during that time I didn't just eat kebabs - we smoothened things out for the shooting. I did pre-production for eight months. After all, language is a huge barrier there and we got emails only every five days in broken English!
"We shot for 55 days from mid October to mid December. It was unbelievably freezing. Since Viveik and Shabbir (Ahluwalia) were single and Zayed (Khan) is a free spirit, we partied a lot."
An eye for Istanbul
"I've shot all over the city. You think of an area and it's in there - in fact, if it didn't have actors in it, my film would have been a guide for Lonely Planet! I shot at Grand Bazaar, at the Blue Mosque, within its turrets, at the river, on the roof. My favourite scene comes pre-interval. It was shot with Zayed and Viveik at the Hagia Sophia church, on the first day of shoot, just as the sun came up.
"For one song, I made the three-hour drive to a beach and got a different flavour. The sea was cool and intimidating in the winter - it works because the character is missing his wife and it goes into flashback.
"In one action sequence, we shot at the fully functional Grand Bazaar where Zayed is being chased by five cops. People who saw him running thought he was a robber and tried to nudge and trip him up so the cops could catch him. Zayed got two slaps on the head! I traveled to other parts of Turkey as well, like Antalya, because I wanted to shoot the Afghanistan portions there but ultimately did it in Jaipur.
Carpet baggers
"We made a lot of friends clubbing in Istanbul and staying out all night. It's such a beautiful place with tables on the street, like Paris. My favourite food there was lamajune - a kind of kheema pizza/naan, but which is amazing because it has this parsley and basil in it.
"All of us did a lot of shopping, especially getting Turkish lamps. My mom came and bought about 20 and Zayed's mom bought a chandelier. The evil eye is famous in Turkey, but there you get some lovely ones with gold, which I bought as gifts. Some of the guys even bought carpets and Turkish rugs - (producer) Sunil Shetty wanted to hit people because of their excessive baggage!
"I was supposed to visit the city again as part of a TV channel show, but it hasn't happened yet. I suppose I'll just travel to Istanbul for the time being in my thoughts."
