DISNEY’S ALADDIN: BEHIND THE SCENES

Now when people think ‘Dhol Players’, weddings and birthday parties are the first things that come to mind. However, there’s a lot more that we get involved in. Sometimes you get some really big projects. Our project involved CGI, drummers, dancers, animals and even Hollywood stars.

Will Smith on the set of Disney’s Aladdin with the Imperial Drummers & dancers 

If don’t know already (shame on you), Imperial Drummers co-starred alongside the man himself, Will Smith in Disney’s Aladdin. Now, it must be said that NDA’s (the boring Legal stuff) were signed so we can’t tell you everything (and lets be honest, we don’t want to spoil it if you haven’t seen the movie), but we are going to let you in on some of the behind the scenes action. Why? Well because if you love films as much as we do, I’m sure you would want to know how all the magic happens. Unfortunately though, we weren’t allowed to take our phones on set so we are going to leave everything up to your imagination.

Whoever said showbiz was easy, lied. Filming required relentless early starts, late nights and all day on your feet. The parade scene (shown above) itself took five days to film, so this was probably one of the most draining yet satisfying experiences we have ever had.

Here is what a typical day looked like:

• leave home at 4am, travelling an hour and a half to the studio in Surrey, UK (sometimes two hours if we decided to stop for a McDonald’s breakfast).

• Once there our routine consisted of hair and make up (which some of us seemed to rather enjoy), as well as a healthy dose of fake tan (as if we weren’t brown enough already), then a second serving of breakfast.

• After the application of our fake tan we had someone help us get dressed in and out of our costumes and being driven to and from set continuously in what looked like a run down American school bus.

  
  

Honestly guys, it was tough. But we did it. As they say, the show must go on.

Drummers on set 

Now for us, this wasn’t simply just turning up on set and filming a scene and going home. Disney did their absolute best to get every aspect spot on and perfect. This meant we had been planning and working with Disney four months before shooting began. 

Countless rehearsals, dress rehearsals, costume measurements and even lyric learning were all done in the months prior – One thing which wasn’t rehearsed was Will Smith stepping on my foot!

Lyrics sheet with annotations 

One experience we want to share with you was working with animals. Working with animals is never easy, especially when the animal is a 500kg horse. My Red Dead Redemption 2 fans will know what I’m talking about. What makes it even harder is when they have bladder problems. One particular horse decided to leave us a a fairly large present just before the director said “action”. This meant hopping around it during filming and stepping in it for one unlucky person, resulting in multiple retakes and some very smelly shoes.

Now you’ll see in the scene there were herd’s of different animals – horses, camels, monkeys, elephants you name it – I hate to break it to you, but only the horses and camels were real. Everything else was a CGI. The monkeys running were particularly fascinating since they were a green tennis ball being rolled along the floor. And the genie on the ostrich? Well that was a car with a green pole attached to it with two bouncy drums. Even more fascinating was the weather. Agrabah was beautiful that time of the year – Unlike the UK, so even the weather wasn’t real. There really is nothing the film industry can’t create.

One thing that everybody would want to know is how it was to meet and work with Will Smith. Well, we all had our separate opportunities to meet him.

Some met him during rehearsals, I met him on set (when he bumped into me by accident) and one particular team member got to meet him in the toilets! He is extremely humble and very easy to talk to. He also knows how to act professionally when he’s working but also knows how to enjoy himself – He definitely enjoys what he does. It was an absolute pleasure to share the set with him – and if you’re reading this Will – we hope to work alongside you once again in the future.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Disney on behalf of everyone at Imperial drummers for giving us this opportunity. It was an absolute pleasure!