The Hrithik Roshan and Saif Ali Khan-starrer ‘Vikram Vedha’ was recently the subject of controversy. Some media reports claimed that Hrithik had refused to shoot in the by-lanes of Uttar Pradesh and had rather asked the makers to erect sets depicting the Indian state in Dubai. This would have been a mammoth undertaking and would add several crores to the budget. In a statement, Reliance Entertainment, which is backing the film said, “We have been noticing a lot of misleading and totally unsubstantiated reporting on ‘Vikram Vedha’ shooting locations. We clearly state that ‘Vikram Vedha’ has been shot extensively in India, including in Lucknow. A portion of the film was shot in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in October-November of 2021. This because it was the only location providing the infrastructure for a bio-bubble that accommodated crew of such scale, also allowing the building of sets in a studio during the preceding months of the shoot. We chose to do that out of health and protocol concerns. Any attempt to twist these sets of facts are clearly mischievous and untruthful.” Directed by Pushkar and Gayatri, ‘Vikram Vedha’ is scheduled to release on September 30th.
