Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 23, 2016)

Shahid Kapoor, along with co-star Kangana Ranaut, director Vishal Bhardwaj and a braveheart unit, has just returned from a gruelling three-week schedule of Rangoon. The Casablanca-like love story is set during the Second World War, and producer Sajid Nadiadwala, managed a coup of sorts by getting permission to shoot in virgin locales of Arunachal Pradesh where the Indo-Burma border was recreated.

Says a source from the sets, "We were staying in a hotel in Rottung and while the locations are picture-perfect, the living conditions were at best spartan even for the stars. But neither of them complained, even though Kangana is playing a diva of the '40s. Even the nawab, Saif Ali Khan, who was down for a couple of days, soldiered through long drives to and between Pasighat, Rottung and Kibang, sometimes an eight-nine-hour journey one way, and long treks through jungles."

Since the sun rises in the east, days dawned early and it was action from 4 am. But they also packed up early, around 4-5 pm, once the light faded. And as there wasn't much to do except for work, everyone would be in bed by 8 pm.

"But Shahid couldn't skip his workouts. He plays a soldier in the film and needed to be in peak physical condition for the action scenes. He's never been fitter," says the source.

And what's the one memory that they will always carry from this shoot? "Spiders, there were lots of them crawling around everywhere," the source says with a laugh.