Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's "Captain cameo" in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Don’t tell anyone. But director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is a closet-actor. In Bhaag Milkha Bhaag when Milkha Singh, played by Farhan Akhtar, flies on a plane for the first time, Rakeysh plays the captain of the flight crew who has to come out of the cockpit to pacify Milkha. Laughs Rakeysh. “Nobody noticed. But I was also in the last scene of Rang De Basanti as young Bhagat Singh’s father.” Recalling the experience of shooting the extremely comic sequence of Milkha’s first air journey (reminiscent of Sridevi’s flight to the USA in English Vinglish), Rakeysh says, “We shot a lot more. I had to cut the scene down. What remains is what really happened to Milkhaji. Every incident from his life is worth putting on film.” Rakeysh just returned home having screened BMG for audiences in the Tribeca Cinemas in New York. He is very happy with the response to the film there. “In New York a lot of the audience and critics were Americans. And they seemed to connect with the historical perspective and cultural sensitivities of the story. We got a standing ovation at the end.”