No Indian summer rain delays Bollywood film set

TO THAT old showbiz adage “never work with animals or children” should come a third advisory.

Never film a Bollywood dance sequence outdoors in Ireland in October. There were lights and cameras in Trinity College Dublin yesterday, but precious little action, as rain fell persistently through what was to be a setpiece film sequence.

The makers of the film Ek Tha Tigerassembled a supporting cast comprising 60 dancers from the Jane Shortall Dance, the Dublin Fire Brigade Band, the Tallaght Youth band and, rather incongruously, a group of extras dressed in Kilkenny hurling gear who used their hurleys as dancing props.

The film stars Salman Khan and British-born actor Katrina Kaif. Khan is one of the biggest stars in the Bollywood firmament among the fifth of the world’s population that lives on the Indian sub-continent.

A few years ago he could have walked down Grafton Street without being recognised, but this being multicultural Ireland, hundreds of expatriate Indians turned out in the rain to glimpse the man himself.

He was suitably diplomatic about filming in Ireland. “It’s chilled out and beautiful. I love the architecture. The weather is not great for us filming, but it is good for drinking Guinness.”

Like the makers of Educating Rita, the film's director Kabir Khan came looking for a quintessential English university campus and found it in Ireland. Khan confessed to being "very scared" given the Irish weather, and had hoped to film in July or August. Despite yesterday's rain he said they had not lost a day filming and he was pleased with their week-long shoot in Ireland.

Separately, Dublin stood in for Belfast yesterday as filming began on the TV mini-series Titanic – Blood and Steel, which tells the story of the making of the ill-fated ship.