Khan learned ballet, aerobatics and the French technique of parkour, a method of movement focused on negotiating obstacles with speed and efficiency, while Kaif took paragliding training and singing lessons. Bachchan reportedly lost nine kilos of weight to prepare for his role in the film. Rimi Sen, who played the role of ACP Jai Dixit's (character played by Abhishek Bachchan) wife in the previous two instalments of the series, was not approached to play her character Sweety. However, she stated that she would not have reprised the role even if she were offered. Unlike the first two "Dhoom" films directed by Sanjay Gadhvi, Vijay Krishna Acharya, the writer of all three instalments of "Dhoom", was roped in to direct "Dhoom 3". Olliver Keller was signed to direct the stunt scenes. Aamir Khan stated in an interview that his role in "Dhoom 3" is the toughest role so far in his life. The action scenes were directed by Conrad Palmisano and Sham Kaushal. In an interview with IANS, Abhishek Bachchan expressed how every character of "Dhoom 3" is significant: "..."Dhoom" is my film and I am the hero. Nobody can take that away from me. You can be the biggest or the smallest star but "Dhoom" is about Jai and Ali. It is as simple as that. If the characters of Jai and Ali are not there in "Dhoom", the film won't be there." On 23 September 2013, three months before the actual release of the film, DNA and other media news publications revealed that Aamir Khan could play a dual role in "Dhoom 3", but they did not confirm it. The dual role was only confirmed at the release of the film. This made "Dhoom 3" the first and currently the only film in the series in which the antagonist has a double role. However, this was not the first time the series featured a double role, since Bipasha Basu had a double role in "Dhoom 2" as Shonali and Monali, but they did not share the same screen space, unlike Khan's characters. Filming was scheduled to commence from November 2011, with scenes involving Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra being shot first, but the former was off on a paternity leave, so shooting was postponed to January 2012.