Judged against the yardstick of your standard Hindi potboiler, Nayak has fewer fight sequences than most -- the point, according to Shankar, is to go for quality, not quantity.

Thus, all stops were pulled out when it came to recording the film's few fight sequences. Like the one where Anil Kapoor ends up thrown into deep slush from which he rises looking for all the world like a clay figure.

Or the one involving a fight that spreads from tenement to road to the sides and roof of double decker buses. Again, a question of logistics -- since it is a daytime shot and had to be canned against the backdrop of the Marine Drive stretch, it was shot on a Sunday (as it happens, a second Sunday when, by convention, the industry does not work).

Double deckers were hired, as were over 500 extras. "The trouble is," says a senior member of Shankar's crew, "that the sequence was so intricately choreographed, it took a lot of time to can. Each movement had to be very carefully rehearsed, since there was a huge element of danger. The cameras had to be mounted just right because you couldn't go in for umpteen retakes. And it all had to be done in day time while keeping the crowds at bay."

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