If "Chak De India" is running to housefuls today, it is because a whole lot of backbreaking effort went into its making. That superstar Shah Rukh Khan has given a performance par excellence, as the coach of the Indian women's hockey team, is visible on screen, but director Shimit Ameen too left no stone unturned.

Sources say 1,200 cans were used for making the movie. Each can is 400 feet long and of four minutes. So the more the retakes, the more the cans used. It can very well be imagined how many retakes must have been taken to finish off 1,200 cans. It was also reported that Shah Rukh was irritated with so many retakes. But that didn't let the perfectionist director to compromise.

Apart from the effort, the total expenditure on the cans added up to a huge sum as each comes for Rs 11,000-12,000. It was because the production was under the big banner of Yash Raj Films that such expenditure could be handled. Had it been some small-time producer, the project would have been stalled mid-way. -(SAMPURN)