Bollywood actors often describe their shooting schedule as a picnic. But “cold and depressing” is what Saif Ali Khan has to say about the US shoot of “Kurbaan”, speaking for not just himself but also girlfriend and co-star Kareena Kapoor.

“Kurbaan was hard work. Period. In fact, the Philadelphia schedule was plain hell. It wasn’t anything like a picnic shooting for the film,” shudders Saif, who is glad that the film is complete and ready for release.

Saif says, “It gets dark there at 4 p.m. itself. Moreover, it’s so cold and at minus 10 degrees it can actually get really depressing. Since we were shooting in sync sound, it was extremely difficult to get the pitch and tone right while delivering our dialogues.”

The film by Rensil D’Souza also stars Vivek Oberoi, Dia Mirza, Om Puri and Kirron Kher and will be released Nov 20.

It was during the shoot of the film that Saif and Kareena got news of the terror attack in Mumbai last year. “Because of that, it was so difficult to concentrate on the film’s shoot. Thankfully, Bebo (Kareena Kapoor) was there with me at that time but still both of us were very depressed,” says Saif.