Anaika Soti, whose last outing in Tamil was Kaaviya Thalaivan, is back with the Atharvaa-starrer Semma Botha Agathey. The actor, who plays a sex worker in the film, was shooting in Chennai, when a rather painful incident occurred.
The scene, which also features comedian Karunakaran, was shot inside a house.
“The director had explained the scene in detail. It was a difficult scene and I was not sure how we were going to pull it off,” she recalls.
Karunakaran had to lift Anaika and place her inside a cupboard near the ceiling. She had to lie down inside it for some time. And then, they were both to fall down onto a bed below. “This was easier said than done. With some difficulty, Karuna managed to lift me and place me inside the cupboard. Then we both had to fall down together. Each time, he was sweet enough to act as a buffer for my fall so that I wouldn’t get hurt. But we couldn’t get the scene right and so there were several retakes.”
During one such retake, Anaika fell a few seconds before Karunakaran did, and hit the bed with a loud thud. Falling from a height, her body apparently bounced on the bed and before she knew what was happening, her head apparently hit the metal rod on the bed. “It all happened so fast. I heard a loud ‘thunk’ as my head hit the rod. The sound reverberated in the room and the entire unit was stunned and stood still for a few moments, horrified, as I screamed in pain.”
Then, everyone rushed towards her, after Karunakaran fell down next to her. “Karuna was shocked about the accident and kept saying sorry, and blamed himself for it. The unit arranged for an ice pack as my head swelled up. I couldn’t move due to the pain.” In the midst of it all, she was busy trying to calm down a guilt-ridden Karunakaran, explaining that the accident was not his fault at all.
After some time, Anaika got up to do the shot once again. “This time, Karuna and I planned the shot in great detail as neither of us wanted to risk another fall! This time, he was extra careful and would not let me go till both of us fell on the bed in perfect sync. And finally, we got it right.”