Actress Elnaaz Norouzi, who is known for her work in ‘Sacred Games’, ‘Tehran’ and others, has shared that she braved through the shooting of ‘Mastii 4’ despite sustaining a knee injury. The actress kept rehearsing her dance routine with choreographer Adil Shaikh, completing four back-to-back song sequences and key scenes without holding up the schedule.
The injury had occurred during the shoot for 'Ishq Bukhaar' from her previous film 'Tehran'. All four songs were scheduled right at the start of the shooting calendar, and those were the only dates available for her.
Determined not to delay the production, the actress pushed through the discomfort to finish every song before moving on to the film’s scenes. Physiotherapy support and controlled movement helped her continue safely.
Talking about the same, she said, “Injuries happen on sets, especially when there’s dancing involved. I wasn’t happy about the knee acting up, but I didn’t want it to stop the flow. We were in a good rhythm, and I wanted to stay with the team”.
The atmosphere on set helped her stay upbeat. The cast and crew checked on her through the day, and the mood remained light, with friendly jokes becoming a running theme. She further mentioned, “My birthday happened to fall right in the middle of the Mastii 4 shoot.
Milap wished me saying, ‘Happy birthday! Wish you a year full of love and harmony’. But instead of writing ‘harmony,’ he wrote ‘knee’, with K-N-E-E. When we were about to shoot one of the songs, usually it’s said, ‘Go, break a leg’, but they jokingly said, ‘Break a knee!’ So, everyone kept making fun of it.
Even Vivek started calling me El ‘Knees’ instead of Elnaaz”. The actress also said that during the shoot, there were knee jokes non-stop, and every day someone came up with a new one. She continued, “Instead of feeling like I was hurt, it felt like everyone just folded the knee into the group.
It sounds silly, but little things like that keep you going”. Even with the discomfort, she completed all four songs that were scheduled, working with modified choreography where needed and taking breaks in between shots.
“Dancers and actors push through things all the time. I’ve always believed in showing up, whatever the situation. As long as the doctors were okay with it and I could move, I wasn’t going to sit out. When you’re on a set with good energy, it changes everything.
The laughter really helped, Milap, Riteish, Aftaab and Vivek are a fun bunch. The knee didn’t win, and it definitely heard enough jokes to retire”, she added. ‘Mastii 4’ will be soon released in cinemas.