Actor Kathir recently shot for his next film, Pariyerum Perumal, produced by Pa Ranjith, in the Tirunelveli area. One of the locations for the shoot was a banana grove spread across several acres. What sounds like an idyllic location ended up, however, being the scene of some scary drama for the actor.
Kathir recalls the day with a shudder: “It was a simple shot. A group of junior artistes and I had to sit near one of the low-slung banana trees. I had to then reach out and pluck four bananas and hand them out to my friends and a dog nearby. We started rolling.”
When he raised his hand towards the tree, he heard a slight rustle and a hiss, and to his utmost horror, he saw a snake moving in his direction. “I was shell-shocked and froze with fear. The dog began barking, but the other actors didn’t see anything. I quickly gathered my wits and jumped up from my seat and ran, shouting ‘paambu paambu’. I am terribly scared of snakes and seeing one at such close quarters had me shaking. The others actors quickly realised what was going on, and all of us, including the dog, sprinted as fast as we could towards the camera team, who were at a distance.”
As a huffing and puffing Kathir ran towards the team and explained, the team calmed him down. “Director Mari Selvaraj was quite unperturbed because he hails from the region and is quite used to wild animals. He assured me the snake was not poisonous, but for my sake, he sent the team to go and search the area. Thankfully, the snake had left and I was able to resume the shot again after a while.”
But his woes didn’t end there.
“I had to run through the banana grove for nearly a kilometer the next day. All through, I was praying fervently to God, hoping I wouldn’t step on any reptiles during the chase! It’s strange because, even in my previous film, Madhayaanai Kootam, there was a snake on a branch just above my head and I didn’t know about it till we saw it on the monitor!”