By now we are all aware of the well-broadcast cast of Apoorva Lakhia’s Zanjeer, the remake of the 1973 Amitabh Bachchan blockbuster featuring Telugu superstar Ramcharan Teja in the lead.
What we don’t know is that there was a casting panic in the unit when no actor could be found for one of the key roles.
We’re talking about the white stallion that formed a crucial part of the Salim-Javed script.
Says a source from neo-Zanjeer, “In the original film the Big B’s Vijay keeps getting these recurring nightmares where he sees this white stallion that rears up on screen on two legs and neighs passionately. In the remake getting a stallion of the same stature proved problematic. Lakhia even thought of scrapping the stallion’s part from the neo-Zanjeer because in any case nowadays filmmakers have to deal with the Animal Welfare Board and its strict rules.”
However it was felt that the horse plays a pivotal part in the plot and cannot be done away with. Finding the right breed proved a huge problem… until the film’s leading man Ramcharan Teja came to the film’s rescue.
Apparently Ramcharan owns one of the best stud farms of India. A huge horse-lover Ramacharan’s home has a rare breed of 3-feet miniature horse that roams around freely in Ramcharan’s home like a canine.
The horse in Zanjeer has been taken from Ramcharan’s stud farm which is situated in a sprawling acres of land owned by his wife Upasana Kamineni.
Confirming this, Ramcharan said, “Yes, they are using the horse from my stables which are located in Upasana’s farm.”