When Yashika Anand got ready to shoot for the Yogi Babu-starrer Zombie, she didn’t tell anyone that she was scared of horror stories, ghosts, and zombies. The shooting for this film naturally turned out to be a scary ride for the actor, especially as most of the filming happened at night.
One particular chase sequence, Yashika says, was particularly terrifying. “We were chased by around 200 zombies, with fake blood dripping from their empty-looking eyes, hands extended towards me. I was really scared and ran for my life. The expressions you will see on screen are actually real,” she adds.
In fact, the director complimented her on her ‘realistic’ acting in that scene, not knowing the truth.
Another factor which added to her terror was the sound made by the ‘zombies’. “They had to drag their feet on the ground and slide forward, creeping up on you. That sound of 200 ‘zombies’ dragging their feet really terrified me. It was a night shoot at a beach resort and we were running helter-skelter from the lobby towards the vast lonely beaches.” However, Yashika adds that she felt bad for the junior artists as many of them had skin peeling off their feet from those two days.
The actor reveals that her fear forced her to refuse to sit alone in her vanity van during breaks. “I would sit on a chair near everyone and cover my head with my dressing gown, shutting out all thoughts and the view of the ‘zombies’ around me.”
So why did she keep her fear a secret? “I knew everyone would start pulling my leg. Only my parents and my personal assistant knew how scared I really was.”