Salman Khan’s movie Kick was released 10 years ago in the year 2014. After its release, a special coffee table book called Kick: A Karizmatic Journey was published, featuring rare behind-the-scenes images and interesting trivia. One fascinating fact is about the famous scene where Salman Khan walks coolly on a track, inches away from a moving train.
Cinematographer Ayananka Bose explained in the book that this scene was executed without VFX. He said, “The ironic part of this iconic sequence is that it was never a part of the original plan.”
He explained further, “Mr Khan was supposed to ride across the tracks on the cycle but just before he was about to perform the shot, he came up with the idea that he would dismount the cycle, push it ahead and just walk across the tracks nonchalantly without even looking at the train which was a fraction of an inch away from him.”
Initially, director Sajid Nadiadwala was unsure about how this sequence would look, but since they were losing light fast, he asked the team to film both options – the original idea of cycling across the tracks and Salman’s suggestion.
Ayananka Bose said, “It sounded impossible to place a camera on the path of an oncoming train without the help of VFX for such a sequence. That is when we decided to dig a hole and place it right in the middle of the tracks onto the path of the train. In those failing light conditions, the crew worked frantically including Sajid sir, who was most worried about the safety of Salman sir. With the failing light conditions, it was a one-shot ‘now or never’ moment.”
He added, “What followed was history. Once the walk across the track was filmed, the original idea was never filmed.”
Another famous action scene in the film involves Devil (Salman Khan) escaping in a London double-decker bus. Interestingly, the scene was not shot in London but in Warsaw, Poland.
Sajid Nadiadwala explained, “The Red Buses had a great journey because we started from London, then Glasgow and then Warsaw. Thank god, we got permission to shoot in Warsaw. Otherwise, we would have to shoot in Bangkok or Hong Kong. We put both buses on trucks to transport them from the UK to Poland as they were not allowed to drive on the highway.”
