For the shoot of her next Tamil film, 'PT Sir', starring Hiphop Adhi, actor Anikha Surendran had to travel to Pollachi and Chennai. “This was my first shoot in Pollachi. I had only a few days of shoot there, as the rest of my portions were in Chennai. But due to the tight schedule, I had no time to explore the place after the shoot,” says Anikha. The busy schedule may have deprived Anikha of a chance to explore Pollachi; however, she was still able to spend some quality time with her co-stars.
In Chennai, particularly, she recalls the camaraderie she enjoyed with Hiphop Adhi and Kashmira Pardeshi during the shoot. This, despite the hardship she faced while shooting. “We shot quite a bit on a terrace. This was for a night shoot that required artificial rain and it was a big scene that went on for several days.
The month being January, it was already a bit chilly on the terrace at night. Besides, we were fully drenched, so it felt extra cold. Between shots, we would run for a towel and a hot cup of coffee. Since we could not keep going up and down the building to reach our vanity vans during breaks, we all talked a lot and got to know each other better,” she reveals.
She remembers being floored by Hiphop Adhi’s friendliness. “Despite having achieved so much in life and cinema, he was extremely grounded. He was always chilled out and was cordial with everyone on the sets. As an actor, I found him to be a terrific performer. I remember how he did a particularly difficult scene in just one take that resulted in a lot of applause.”
The conversations with him were an eye-opener for Anikha. “He is so much more than what people know of him. I got to know so much about life and cinema from him.”
In Kashmira, she discovered a good friend. “She is a warm person, and we bonded on the sets, chatting on a variety of topics, right up to what food we would order after a particularly tough shoot!”
Ilavarasu and Vinothini play Anikha’s parents in the film, and between them, they shot many emotionally intense scenes that were quite demanding. “Director Karthik Venugopalan’s narration helped me navigate those scenes smoothly. We didn’t even need multiple takes for such difficult scenes.” Anikha has many good things to say about the filmmaker.
“I’ve never seen him raise his voice. He liked to enact the scenes for us, calling his performance the blueprint on which to model our acting on. He also encouraged us to share our opinions. Usually, it takes me a few days to find my rhythm in a new project. But for 'PT Sir', right from the first day, I felt completely well-adjusted and at ease, thanks to director Karthik and team!”
Location diaries
This weekly column details the fascinating encounters that often take place on the sets of a film