20 years of Jajantaram Mamantaram: Jaaved Jaffrey recalls talking to matchsticks

Jaaved Jaffrey reminisces about the making of the beloved fantasy comedy film Jajantaram Mamantaram, which was released 20 years ago. He recalls how he talked to matchsticks that represented the tiny people in the movie. 

Speaking with The Hindustan Times, the beloved actor said, “The entire film was very heavy on VFX and I had to shoot the entire thing in front of the blue screen.”

“The difficult part was to act with no actors in front. There were little matchsticks or wooden pieces placed here and there for the cue, and I had to deliver dialogues by looking at those objects,” he added.

The Dhamaal actor continues, “For instance, if the film shows a dwarf sitting on my shoulder, I was talking to the matchstick placed on my shoulder. The only time I had an actor in front of me was during the climax, where I fight with Jhamunda. That’s because we both were of the same size.”

He also recalled getting injured during the filming, “The injury happened when I slipped off a box that I was standing on and tore the meniscus of my knee. It took a lot of time to recover and it still hurts,”

The 59-year-old revealed that he said yes to the movie because it gave an Indian twist to the beloved children’s story Gulliver’s Travels “That’s a story we all have grown up listening to.”

He concluded by saying that children still refer to him by his name from the movie, which was Aditya, adding, “this is happening after 20 years so it definitely feels good.”