The team of Ganapath returned to India last week after wrapping up an extensive schedule in London. Producer Jackky Bhagnani admits that filming the Tiger Shroff and Kriti Sanon-led actioner was far from easy as cases of the Omicron variant surged across the United Kingdom in December. “The first few weeks [of the shoot] were brilliant,” says the producer, who took the project on floors in October.

“But in the last two weeks, cases of the Omicron variant started to spread like wildfire. We created a much stricter bio-bubble to ensure there were no disruptions in our schedule.”

Bhagnani, whose Bellbottom was among the first few Bollywood films to roll after the first wave of the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, put his learnings from the project to good use here. While regular sanitisation of the sets has become par for the course, the team was tested every three days and masks were reintroduced. Additionally, the makers ensured that the local unit hands were put up with the rest of the team, thus minimising the interaction with the outside world.

“We completed the shoot with utmost precaution, and safety measures in place. Our experience of shooting Bellbottom in [Scotland and London] came in handy. As a producer, it was important to keep everyone motivated and not let the news of the new variant bog people down,” says Bhagnani, relieved that the foreign leg of Vikas Bahl’s directorial venture was completed on time, without a single case being reported on the set.