For Bhuvan Bam, stepping into the shoes of revolutionary Rash Behari Bose in Prime Video’s upcoming period drama, The Revolutionaries, came with its fair share of challenges, but none quite as unexpected as horse riding. While embodying the fearless revolutionary came naturally, horse riding was an entirely different story. After a rather unfortunate first lesson involving a runaway horse at Juhu Beach, Bhuvan spent the shoot trying to avoid getting back in the saddle, until he found an unexpected solution for the show’s action sequence.
Recounting the hilarious experience, Bhuvan shared, “So they told me to learn horse riding. It was a horse* that’s used for wedding functions, and took me to Juhu Beach for training. So basically, what happened was that the caretaker was on a phone call and the horse simply ran off with me. That was my first day of horse-riding lessons. If I had fallen from there, I would probably still be bedridden today. I was literally hanging from the horse, and I was shivering for the next three days. The incident reached Sir (Nikkhil Advani) and he took stock of the situation, and I opened up to him and told him that ‘Sir, the horse took me away without my permission! Its leg was stuck in some plastic, and it just kept running with me!’
He further shared, “The horse-riding scene hadn’t come up yet and every day, I would wake up thinking, ‘Today I’ll tell Sir. Today I’ll finally gather the courage and tell him that I can’t do horse riding.’ Then there was a day when one scene went really well and sir was extremely happy. I thought, ‘Today he is in a good mood,’ so I went to him and said, ‘Sir, can I tell you something? Please don’t make me ride the horse. Every day I’m haunted by the thought that the horse might take me away again.’”
So, when it came to filming the action sequence featuring Bose and General Dyer (played by Jason Shah), Bhuvan had a rather different idea for how the scene could play out. “Let’s switch it,” said Bhuvan. “By then, I had spoken to Dyer enough to know that he was a kick-ass horse rider. They had given him the bike and given me the horse. So I said, ‘Sir, let’s switch.’ He was such a good horse rider that, at times, the horse was actually overtaking the bike. And then we did it, and it was so swift!”
Inspired by true events and set against the backdrop of India’s freedom struggle, the period drama is directed and created for a series by acclaimed filmmaker Nikkhil Advani, and produced by Monisha Advani and Madhu Bhojwani under the banner of Emmay Entertainment. Based on Sanjeev Sanyal’s bestseller Revolutionaries: The Other Story Of How India Won Its Freedom, The Revolutionaries features an ensemble cast, with Bhuvan Bam, Rohit Saraf, Pratibha Ranta, and Gurfateh Pirzada in lead roles, along with Jason Shah, Paoli Dam, and Tota Roy Chowdhury in key roles. The series premieres September 11, only on Prime Video.
* No Animals Were Harmed During The Filming Of The Series