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Veteran choreographer Chinni Prakash, in an interview with ETimes, opened up about the making of the iconic Jumma Chumma De De song from Hum (1991), revealing the challenges faced by actress Kimi Katkar during the shoot.
“Kimi Katkar was a good dancer, but when there are around 2,000 men and you’re the only girl, you will feel awkward,” Chinni Prakash said, recalling the grandeur and intensity of the song’s set. One of the most talked-about moments was the sequence where Amitabh Bachchan pulls off Kimi’s skirt and sprays her with water from a high-pressure nozzle.
Revealing the behind-the-scenes struggle, Chinni Prakash shared, “That was not an actual nozzle. It was a fire engine nozzle. I also didn’t know that this would put so much pressure because 15-20 boys, Amit ji, and all the junior artists were holding it. On the other side, only Kimi was there. When we did it for the first time, she was literally thrown off by 20 feet. She fell off the bloody cliff. It hurt her. She started crying. There was a stoppage of shooting. But that girl didn’t leave. She was bloody fighting her way with that force.”
He further described the chaotic conditions of the shoot at Mukesh Mills. “We were shooting on the third floor. The fire engine was downstairs. Somebody had to operate it from below, and we didn’t know when the water would come out. There were no walkie-talkies, and the water wouldn’t stop immediately after you said ‘Cut.’ Somebody had to rush downstairs to turn it off. There was no elevator, so you had to walk down the stairs.”
Despite the challenges, the song turned out to be a game-changer. Chinni Prakash recalled how a small preview of the song at Sumit Studio, Juhu, left Jaya Bachchan impressed. “Jaya ji started clapping, ‘Amit, what a dance! This is iconic.’ That’s when Amit ji realized what we had created. The next day, he performed every step with full conviction.”
Speaking about Amitabh Bachchan’s dedication, Chinni Prakash revealed, “Even though he had undergone an operation and wasn’t in his best health, he never said, ‘I can’t do this.’ We did 15 takes for some shots, and every time, he’d look at me after a take. I’d say, ‘Sir, one more.’ He’d say, ‘One more? Let’s do it.’”
Reflecting on the impact of the song, the choreographer credited producer Romesh Sharma for bringing together a dynamic team. “It became an iconic song. Everybody reacts to it. People know me by Jumma Chumma. Hats off to Romesh Sharma for getting all these cracks to work together. I was the biggest crack of them all,” he joked.
Chinni Prakash also recalled a conversation where Amitabh Bachchan asked Mukul Anand about him. “Mr. Bachchan even asked Mukul, ‘This guy is also a crack, no?’ I could hear him. I knew I was a big crack.”
As the team wrapped up the shoot after 15 intense days at Mukesh Mills, emotions ran high. “On the last day of the shoot, all of us almost cried while exiting Mukesh Mills,” Chinni Prakash shared, reminiscing about the unforgettable experience of creating one of Bollywood’s most iconic songs.
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