Actress Zeenat Aman’s inability to swim disrupted her otherwise “seamless” performance with Amitabh Bachchan in the Pukar song Samundar Mein Naha Ke, shot on an empty Goa beach, she said on Thursday, reminiscing about her experience while filming for the hit song sequence.
“My otherwise seamless performance was hindered by one small fact — I can’t swim! I had to swallow a fair amount of nerves (and seawater) for those shots of me writhing in the swash,” wrote Aman, sharing a clip of the song, originally sung and composed by R. D. Burman.
Recalling her “sizzling romance” with Bachchan in the song sequence, Aman noted that the 1983 film also marked the actor’s comeback to films after the life-threatening accident he suffered on the set of Coolie a year back.
“It’s just so damn hot. The weather I mean. Though I won’t be too coy to say that Mr.Bachchan and I romancing to those salty lyrics are quite sizzling too,” wrote Aman.
“This was Mr.Bachchan’s first shoot after the life-threatening accident he suffered on the sets of Coolie in 1982. Bachchan mania was well-established in the country by then, and the nation practically held its breath till he was in the clear. So as you can imagine, the atmosphere on set was particularly buoyant during the making of this film,” she added.
In her note, the 73-year-old actress also reminisced about her experience of working with director Ramesh Behl. “Director-producer Ramesh Behl’s Pukar was a blast to shoot. Its anti-colonial underpinning, excellent cast and catchy songs were what drew me to the script. Now Goa in the early 80s was quiet, idyllic and unpeopled. So Samundar Mein Naha Ke was shot on an empty beach and it was an easy-breezy affair.”
Aman shared that the song required minimal choreography or lip-syncing — her brief was simply to “look pretty” in a white outfit with a bit of midriff showing. However, one challenge remained — her inability to swim. Aman quipped how she had to swallow a fair amount of seawater and bear with sand lodged in “uncomfortable places” while looking like a mermaid.
“I didn’t have any lip-syncing to do, nor much choreography to learn. The brief was as basic as they come — look pretty…despite taking a few tumbles in the waves and being left with sand in uncomfortable places, I thought I did a convincing job of being a jal pari,” joked Aman, who is currently gearing up for Faraz Arif Ansari’s Bun Tikki and the Netflix series The Royals.
Aman also recalled how Bachchan was a well-established actor by then and so his return to the entertainment industry after the near fatal accident he suffered on the sets of Coolie left everyone on the sets of Pukar excited and overjoyed.
During the shoot of Coolie in 1982, Bachchan was grievously injured during a fight scene with co-star Puneet Issar when a mistimed jump caused him to land on the edge of a table, resulting in an internal injury.
Pukar also starred Randhir Kapoor and Tina Munim in key roles. The film follows a group of freedom fighters battling to liberate Goa from Portuguese rule.