later blame for the dismal performance of the film at the box office. The sequences involving the train were directed by Filmfare award winning, stunt director Allan Amin. Bachchan refused to have a body double for the scenes and performed all the dangerous stunts himself. During the sequence, he had to balance himself atop two trains which were travelling at approximately 100 km/h. He hit his head on a rod on top of the train, but still managed to complete the scene. During another scene Bachchan was left hanging by a rack on the train for around 20 hours. While filming took place there, a group of Russian soldiers learnt that an Indian film was shooting nearby and joined the crew on the sets and requested to meet all the stars. Some of the scenes were filmed close to the Arctic Circle, Arctic Ocean and at the North Pole, which was the first time a Bollywood film had been filmed there. However a slight problem arose; no food was available because of the extremely cold climate and everyone had to manage on packets of soups. Shooting in Russia ended in late July 2011. The cast flew back to India, finalised a few last minute shots and songs, before the film went into the post-production stage. Release The release of Players was repeatedly delayed; it was initially planned for a Diwali release but the film was not completed in time, as the story demanded extensive filming of action scenes. Hussain Burmawala took six-and-a-half months to complete the editing, which is the longest time taken for any Indian film to be edited. The release was expected on 9 December 2011 alongside Ladies vs Ricky Bahl and Agent Vinod but was further delayed until 26 December, to make more time for promotions. Bachchan requested that the film was released at a later date as he wanted to avoid a clash with Shahrukh Khan's Don 2. Players was finally released on 6 January 2012, making it the first released Bollywood film of 2012. Pre-release Before its release, Players garnered a lot of curiosity from Bollywood movie buffs and critics, ever since the first preview which generated a positive response from the audience. The directors Abbas-Mustan, who are known for their adaptations of Hollywood films into Indian-esque classic thrillers, returned to direction after quite some time. They had promised to break the boundaries of the