Emraan Hashmi fractures finger on birthday

Mar 26, 2009 Subhash K Jha

Mumbai, March 27 (IANS) Actor Emraan Hashmi, who celebrated his birthday shooting for his upcoming film "Tum Mile", said he fractured his finger on the big day and received a long, touching SMS from uncle Mahesh Bhatt.

"For this birthday, I got a long touching SMS from Bhatt Saab. And a fractured finger."

He said Mahesh Bhatt likes to receive gifts even on his nephew's birthday instead of giving gifts.

"On my 30th birthday on Tuesday I called Bhatt Saab to ask what he's giving me. He turned around and made me gift him books. He makes me do that quite often. The only thing is he doesn't call it gifts. He calls it 'guru-dakshina' (offering to teacher). In fact after every hit film he takes a cheque from me. And every couple of months I give him money to buy books."

"I'm finally a true-blue member of the cast," said Emraan Hashmi jokingly looking at the plaster cast on his finger.

Shooting scenes of torrential rain in Kunal Deshmukh's "Tum Mile", Emraan broke his finger on Tuesday.

"This is the second time I've injured myself during this film's shoot. Earlier I injured my eye. But I need time for it to heal as we're shooting under several feet of water. We're re-living the torrential rains of July 26, 2005."

And the on-camera deluge has been created in no ordinary studio.

"Since no studio could give us a floor large enough to submerge cars in rain water we've hired this disused scrap-metal factory in Mulund which has been filled up with water. It started with ankle-deep water. Now it's knee-deep. Now the water has gone up to the waist and stomach. Soha is much shorter so we just see her head popping out of the water," he said.

Wading through stagnant water for almost a month has taken its toll on Emran and Soha's skin.

"There're two recycling plants installed. But they haven't helped much. And on top of that we've cars underwater which we bump into regularly. Director Kunal Deshmukh should be happy he's got two cooperative actors. We don't demand mineral water instead of rain water to sink into."

"Me and Soha Ali Khan have been literally shooting 16-18 hours a day. I couldn't even attend the birthday calls. When I went back home I saw more bouquets than I had ever seen in my life. Quite a change from how it used to be when I had debacles."

"My birthday was chaotic," he said.

"The shooting went way beyond what we expected. So by the time I reached home we couldn't really go out. My wife and I just had a quiet dinner."