The cast and crew of Vishal Bhardwaj’s movie ‘Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola’ were caught in the thunderstorm that hit Chandigarh on Wednesday evening.

The sets of the movie collapsed and five of the crew members were severely injured.

“The winds were so strong that the light tower bent 80 degree. There was no time for the light men to get off the dais, resulting in an accident," Bhardwaj told TOI.

The director also said that the strong winds prevented them from taking the injured to the hospital immediately.

“It was windy and rainy the previous day also but Thursday evening, the storm almost killed us,” he said.

Vishal Bhardwaj said that his generator operator, Paras, presence of mind has saved many lives as there were more than 300 people around when the lights went off.

“Our generator operator, Paras, had the presence of mind to switch off the generator, thereby saving many lives. Many could have otherwise got electrocuted,” he said.

“The kacha roads made it difficult for the cars to move faster for us to take them to the hospital. They were carried by people on shoulders to safe place and then transported to the hospital in Mohali. Some of them had to be operated on. Once they get better, we will move them to Mumbai,” he added.

The shooting of the movie has been canceled for time being and will restart once cast and crew recover.

“Everybody's morale is down but we will try and shoot some portion on Saturday,” he said.

Imran Khan and Anushka Sharma were present during the shooting but were unharmed.