Shooting for `Tell Me Oh Khuda` was physically demanding: Esha

Mumbai: Esha Deol, in her own words, is bruised black and blue. After participating in a camel race in Jaisalmer and doing road stunts in Goa for her mother`s production "Tell Me Oh Khuda", she can barely move a limb. "The director Mayur Puri and the fight master Parvez Bhai forgot I was a girl and therefore delicate in my own way. This has been the most physically demanding experience of my life," Esha, who was last seen in "Hijack", said.

Twenty-seven years after Hema Malini got on a camel in the Rajasthan deserts to sing the haunting "Ae dil-e-nadaan" in Kamal Amrohi`s "Razia Sultan", Esha rode the camel like a pro in Jaisalmer. "In `Razia Sultan`, mom was singing on the camel. I was wincing in pain. For 10 days I rode the camel like a professional for a camel race along with Arjan Bajwa, Chandan Roy Sanyal and Sudhandhu Pande. I was the only girl in the team. But people seemed to forget that. But if I may say so, I had the best calves on display in the typical Rajasthani camel-rider`s costume, the kurta lungi and all," said Esha, 28. For the first few she was in a daze. "The seat on top of the camel is so rough and so unfriendly to comfortable riding, my knees and inner thighs were constantly bruised. When my mother saw I was hurt, she was livid. But I told her to chill. And we continued shooting on the camels for a good week after that. Now I can call myself an expert camel rider," sad Esha. Her training in kick-boxing held her in good stead. "For the last two years I`ve subconsciously been training for this film. I needed to get physically fit. Which I`ve done. And I needed to mature emotionally. That too, I think, I`ve achieved." She says shooting "Tell Me Oh Khuda" has been like shooting three different films. "We shoot in three different continents with three different cinematographers. So it`s like doing three different films. In Turkey I shot with Rishi Kapoorji and in Jaisalmer I`m shooting with Vinod Khannaji." Now Esha wants to bring her father Dharmendra and mom together for the last segment of the film. "It`s a dream for me to have them in the same film as me, so that one day I can tell my grandchildren, `I made this happen`. And I will make it happen." IANS