John Abraham’s Parmanu: The Story Of Pokhran gets stalled by a sandstorm in Rajasthan!

John Abraham’s next film Parmanu-The Story Of Pokhran, directed by Abhishek Sharma, and based on the nuclear test conducted in Pokhran in 1998 has already run into shooting problems. 

On Wednesday the cast and crew faced rough weather when an aandhi (a violent dust squall) swept away their tents on the sets and disrupted the shooting till the unit had to cancel the shoot for the day. But fortunately the film is on track and ahead of its schedule so the aandhi didn’t cause much stress to the producers.

The shooting of Parmanu is taking place 40 km away from Jaisalmer on the Lakhmana desert. Says a source, “On July 5 the unit was shooting with John and other cast members when a strong aandhi struck the shoot. Aandhis are the precursors to monsoon and while brief, can block out the sun, drastically reduce visibility and cause damage to property. On the Parmanu sets it raged for a couple of hours and was so strong that the tents flew off in the strong gust of winds and nobody could see anything at all as the sand blew in their eyes. Apparently the unit has put up a huge set resembling the Pokhran Field. While shooting resumed the next day, a few lakhs were lost for that day.”

A unit member from Parmanu confirms, “Yes there was a sudden sandstorm and the shoot did get canceled for that day but one has to take these things in one’s stride. John and the other technicians were shooting and the heat levels were very high so we had no other option but to cancel the shoot. The good thing is that in spite of that, we are on track and actually ahead on schedule.”

Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran is set to release on December 8 this year and also stars Boman Irani and Diana Penty among others. John plays an army officer in the film and the cast and crew have already shot some scenes in Pokhran, Jodhpur and Jaipur last month. The film is based on the series of underground nuclear tests carried out by the Indian government in May, 1998 in Pokhran.