During a conversation on India TV’s ‘The Filmy Hustle’ podcast, famous director Kabir Khan revealed how he made ‘Kabul Express’ after facing a near-death experience.
Bollywood director Kabir Khan, famous for films like ‘Ek Tha Tiger’, ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’, ‘Chandu Champion’ and ’83’, is known in the film industry for his powerful film stories. He has given several hit films in his 9-year film career. The director has now revealed about facing a near-death situation during a conversation on India TV’s ‘The Filmy Hustle’ podcast. The director told how during a life and death situation, the actor realised the power of cinema and promised himself that if he made alive out of the situation, he would direct feature films.
Kabir Khan’s adventurous story
Kabir Khan, who made his feature film directorial debut with the adventure thriller ‘Kabul Express’ in 2006, revealed what fear he faced when he went to Afghanistan to shoot a documentary. ‘To be honest, that was a very scary time for me. Whatever happened, there was a sign of our death in a way. In 2001, we had to go to Afghanistan to shoot a documentary, but since we were Indians, we did not have an easy way to get there. So we had to go through Tajikistan. There was a landslide there and we thought we would take a helicopter, but it crashed a day before. 14 days have passed and we thought we should leave from here, but then we tried one more time,’ the director said.
The inception of Kabul Express
Kabir Khan added, ‘We saw a Russian helicopter with health equipment and we used Indian Jugaad and gave him 2000 dollars which was 1,68,421.50 according to Indian Rupees. He took us to Afghanistan but didn’t land and asked us to jump between the mountains, so, we had to jump from that height to save our lives. Later, we spotted a man who was walking towards us in anger. I knew that they liked Indian cinema and we started shouting, ‘Hindustan Hindustan.’ The unknown person near us and started singing, ‘Mere Sapno Ki Rani Kab Aayegi.’ As soon as I heard this, I decided that if I make it out of her alive, then I will work for Hindi cinema. From there, my journey of making films started.’
For those who don’t know, Kabir Khan’s debut film, Kabul Express, was based on the director’s own experiences, which also got Kabir his first National Award in the category, National Film Award for Best Debut Film of a Director.
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